Journal of Electoral Studies

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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.1 Why Do Taiwanese Vote?

Why Do Taiwanese Vote?

Chia-Hung Tsai
2001 / 11
Volume 8, No.2

pp.125-154
10.6612/tjes.2001.08.02.125-154
Paper

Abstract

The gubernatorial election in 1994 was the first popularly governor election in Taiwan history. My intention here is to examine turnout in the gubernatorial and presidential elections and to explain how people decide to vote in single-member district. What my findings suggest is that social networks and candidate evaluations largely mobilize voters. Citizen duty is not as influential as partisanship in structuring people's turnout decision. In the presidential election, however, only candidate evaluations affects turnout. The turnout decision in Taiwan hinges on self -interest and social mobilization instead of political attitudes. These findings, which of course require further investigation, shed some lights on the influence of social networks in Taiwan, and reveal the importance of candidate evaluations in terms of turnout in single-member district election.

Keywords

social networks

partisanship

candidate evaluations

turnout

single-member district