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Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.2 The Development and Changing Situation of Independent Voters in Taiwan from 1989 through 1999

The Development and Changing Situation of Independent Voters in Taiwan from 1989 through 1999

Tien-Lien Chuang
2001 / 05
Volume 8, No.1

pp.71-115
10.6612/tjes.2001.08.01.71-115
Paper

Abstract

Two major parties in Taiwan,KMT and DPP,have implementedpublic opinion survey as the formal mechanism for their candidate selections.The employment of public opinion survey in the process of candidate selection is based on two hypotheses:(1)the usage of opinion surveymay narrow down the gap between the”party will”and the”public opinion”,(2)the usage of opinion survey may reduce the influence of”nominalparty members”.This paper examines the candidate selection process ofDPP in 1998 Legislative Yuan Election,and demonstrates that none ofthe hypotheses above are true.Moreover,when the public opinion surveywas applied for the candidate selection,the most important function ofthe political party will be shrunk.

Keywords

Independent Voters

Party Identification

Political Involvement

The Degree of Media Exposion

Political Knowledge

Political Trust

The Perspection of the Value of Democracy

Candidate Image

Party Image

Pol