Journal of Electoral Studies

Issues

Home Issues Backissues Volume 31, No.1 "Lee Teng-hui Complex" and Voting Behaviors: A Psycho-political Analysis of Vote-choices in the 1994 Taiwan's Gubernatorial and Taipei Mayoral Elections

"Lee Teng-hui Complex" and Voting Behaviors: A Psycho-political Analysis of Vote-choices in the 1994 Taiwan's Gubernatorial and Taipei Mayoral Elections

Huo-yan Shyu
1995 / 11
Volume 2, No.2

pp.1-36
Paper

Abstract

This essay attempts first to re-conceptualize public's deep-seated am-bivalent feelings, thoughts and perceptions about the first Taiwanese President Lee as 'Lee Teng-hui complex' by refering the concept 'complex' back to analytical psychologist Carl Jung's original usage. Sec-ond, in the our empirical analysis Lee Teng-hui complex is then operationalized and measured as individual's positive-negative affect responses that taken to be off the top of the head while confronting in-formation related to President Lee. As shown in our multivariate analy-sis of electoral survey data, individual's ethnicity, education, and parti-sanship are significant predictors of Lee Teng-hui complex. Moreover, same as that of Taiwanese vs. mainlanders, KMT and NP identifiers are also found polarized in the measure of Lee Teng-hui complex. Among direct determinants of individual's partisan vote-choices, Lee Teng-hui complex is found only marginally significant, however, it is a major intervening variable in shaping individual's evaluation of candidates, issues and parties that lead to the final vote-choice making in both the 1994 Taiwan's Gubernatorial and Taipei Mayoral elections. This essay concludes that individual's ambivalent affect toward President Lee, com-monly termed 'Lee Teng-hui complex' in public discourse, has indeed served as the catalyst for the forming of the splinter New Party on the one hand, and it has only hollo-effect functioning as indirect factor in shaping individual's partisan vote-choices on the other.

Keywords

Complex

Lee teng-hui complex

Taiwan complex

China complex

Schema

KMT identification

DPP identification

NP identification