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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.1 Spatial Distribution of Votes and Disproportionality: An Observation of the 6th and 7th Legislative Elections

Spatial Distribution of Votes and Disproportionality: An Observation of the 6th and 7th Legislative Elections

Chih-Sung Teng, Chin-En Wu, and I-Jung Ko
2010 / 05
Volume 17, No.1

pp.21-53
10.6612/tjes.2010.17.01.21-53
Paper

Abstract

In the 7th legislative election, Taiwan adopted the single-member district plurality, two-vote system. KMT garnered 53.5% of popular votes but received 78.1% of total seats. What factors account for the bias, and what is the role that spatial distribution of votes and districting plays? To answer these questions, we employ GIS and spatial econometrics to explore the determinants of disproportionality. Our empirical data comprised of the result of the 6th and 7th legislative election. We find that the vote share gap between parties and equally distributed votes across districts are the main contributing factors, while districting does not prove itself significant. On the other hand, we also use GIS to illustrate the relationship between vote concentration and seats allocation in several counties.

Keywords

legislative election

GIS

spatial distribution of votes

districting

cube law