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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.1 Opinion Survey and Candidate Selection System: The Case of the Democratic Progressive Party in the 1998 Legislative Yuan Election

Opinion Survey and Candidate Selection System: The Case of the Democratic Progressive Party in the 1998 Legislative Yuan Election

Chung-Li Wu
2002 / 05
Volume 9, No.1

pp.81-111
10.6612/tjes.2002.09.01.81-111
Paper

Abstract

In the past years, major political parties in Taiwan used the opinion survey method to nominate their candidates, attempting to abridge the gap between party preferences and public opinions. By doing this, they expected to nominate electable candidates. However, this move has been controversial, critics charging it with some flaws: 1) those who won in the poll did not necessarily electable in general elections; 2) only Taiwan' s political parties adopted the survey method; 3) the political parties lost the power over candidate selection; 4) it worsened the illegal practices of violence and vote-buying; 5) it favored incumbents and high-publicity aspirants; and, 6) some unsuccessful aspirants insisted on running as mavericks, thereby thwarting party cohesion. By analyzing the relevant data, I argue that these criticisms are unconvincing. The major purpose of the survey method lies in ensuring the legitimacy of nominees and in making unsuccessful aspirants no excuses to blame the failures on the party echelons. As for the technical problem on high proportions of ”no response,” I suggest that increasing valid sample sizes might be appropriate to improve the survey method.

Keywords

candidate selection system

opinion survey

party primary election

the Democratic Progressive Party