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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.1 A Study of Taiwanese Democratic Value and Political Trust - A Comparison before and after the Alternation of Power

A Study of Taiwanese Democratic Value and Political Trust - A Comparison before and after the Alternation of Power

Emile C. J. Sheng
2003 / 05
Volume 10, No.1

pp.115-169
10.6612/tjes.2003.10.01.115-169
Paper

Abstract

The democratic value of the people has key influence on the quality of democracy in a country, the level of political trust of the people also influences the legitimacy of the regime. This article focuses on the democratic value and political trust of Taiwanese people, placing emphasis on the changing pattern before and after the alternation of power. We first look at the attitude changes in these issues over time, then examine the factors influencing the attitude changes before and after the alternation of power. We found there is still room for improvements on these political attitudes. Taiwanese people's democratic values ranking from high to low by order are principles of equality, political participation, freedom, check and balance, and diversity. After the alternation of power, eight out of ten principles showed a tendency of deterioration. On political trust, people's trust level from high to low by order are 'consider people's welfare, 'trust toward leaders,' 'ablitity on planning,' 'making the right decision,' 'wasting tax money,' 'integrity of politicians.' After the alternation of power, there are increased trust on the policy making dimension, but decreased trust on both credibility and integrity dimensions. On factors influencing these attitudes changes, ethnic background played only limited role but partisanship has a rather large influence, especially on the political trust level. Finally, we discuss the problem of validity of these questionnaires.

Keywords

democratic value

political trust

alternation of power

political attitude change

questionnaire validity