Journal of Electoral Studies

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Analyzing Taiwan's Democracy

Tsong-Jyi Lin
2007 / 05
Volume 14, No.1

pp.61-84
10.6612/tjes.2007.14.01.61-84

Abstract

This study attempts to explore Taiwan's politics by examining the degree of people's support for democracy and satisfaction with democracy. As findings show, Taiwanese support for democracy was much more stable than satisfaction with democracy in the past years. The factors affecting support and satisfaction are different. Merely the progress of human rights encourages Taiwanese support for democracy. In contrast, several variables, including political and election evaluation, influence the mass satisfaction with democracy. However, economic evaluations are not statistically related to both support and satisfaction. With regard to party identification and demographic elements, only education indicates positive relation with people's support for democracy. The study concludes that Taiwan's democracy might become more consolidated, if education could play an important role in shaping mass civic culture in the coming decades.

Keywords

democratic consolidation

economic evaluations

election evaluations

political evaluations

support for democracy

satisfaction with democracy