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Abstract

In a political campaign, candidates attempt to mobilize voters by using contributions from individuals, corporations, and political parties. It is an accepted fact of democracy that campaigns should attempt to outdo one another in both the amount they collect in contributions and what they spend on campaigns. Previous research has explored the incumbent advantage in campaign finance, but many interesting factors remain. For instance, is fund-raising aided by factors such as the closeness of an election or a candidate’s tenure in the Legislative Yuan? In this study, we explain campaign contributions using data from prediction markets and television news reports to account for variations in campaign spending. Our results suggest that incumbent advantage does indeed affect contributions and that DPP candidates outperformed other candidates in campaign finance. We also find that previous electoral margins and television news coverage contribute significantly to campaign donations, and that election betting has an impact on spending. These findings suggest that a political party’s general campaign can influence the election race of an individual candidate, and that contributors tend to bet on likely winners, deepening the influence of the electoral system on competing political parties.

Abstract

Mixed or Hybrid electoral system, a combination of single-member district with plurality (SMD) and proportional representation (PR), has drawn a lot of attention from all over the world in the past few years. Recent studies have focused on its characters and classifications, its impact on the diversified social development, the connection with strategic voting behavior, the interaction with the campaign strategy and party competition, and the formulation of new party system. Based on the survey conducted by Japanese Election Study (JES) and Taiwanese Election and Democratization Study (TEDS), we compare the dynamic voting behaviors between Japan and Taiwan, since both of them follow the same routine of electoral transformation from SNTV to Mixed system. The results show there do have some difference, especially the ticket splitting of the two ballots and the voting stability during system transition, between two countries. From the cross sectional data analysis, we find KMT and DPP received more consistent support in two separate ballots, comparing with the major parties in Japan. As for the panel data results, the convergence to major parties is confirmed in both countries while the trend is more obvious in Taiwan once again. In short, we find the small parties in Taiwan have relative little room for competition, comparing with those in Japan, under new Mixed system. The formulation of two party system is quite noticeable in Taiwan.

Abstract

This research analyzes the aggregate data of indigenous legislative election results (1992-2008) to figure out the indigenous vote distribution and to discuss the reasons to cause the electoral stability and change by using the cross-level inference method. The research findings show that the KMT does not enjoy a stable support from Taiwan's indigenous electorate. A certain part of the KMTs electoral support is based on local politicians' personal votes. Once the alliance between the KMT and local politicians is broken, the KMT's electoral support will be immediately shrunk. In other words, political students who study Taiwan's aboriginal electoral politics should regard not only political parties but also local politicians as research units. In fact, in order to have profound understandings about aboriginal electoral politics, this research suggests a new perspective, by using local politician's personal votes as a breakthrough point, to do the researches.

Abstract

The mixed-member majoritarian system was first adopted in the 2008 legislative election in Taiwan. In accordance with this electoral system, each voter has two ballots to cast at the same time. The first ballot is for the candidates in the single member district, and the second is for the party list, which determines the seats each party receives. Theoretically, voters' decision on the second ballot depends not only on his or her party identification but also on the quality of party list. Since the two ballots system was recently adopted in 2008, most people are not familiar with the mixed-member majoritarian system. Therefore, this article attempts to examine the voters' perception of the party list and their preference, and furthermore to assess whether their perception and preference would affect their voting choice on the second ballot. The empirical survey data of TEDS2008L is analyzed in this article to answer these questions. It is found that while most voters can neither recognize the names on the lists of the two major parties nor indicate their preference among the lists. However, voters are significantly more likely to vote for the party list they recognize or prefer. This result indicates that parties should make every endeavor to enhance the quality of the party list in order to receive more votes in this newly adopted electoral system in Taiwan.

Abstract

Two often discussed issues remain in the elections for indigenous legislators in Taiwan. One is the way for identifying plain or mountain indigenous district is outdated and the other is, unlike their regional counterparts, the multiple member district is continued to be implemented in election. The former is an issue related to constitution regulation which implies a considerably difficult to be dealt with under current circumstance. Yet, though the constitution does prescribe the number of total indigenous legislators for plain and mountain areas respectively, it does not prescribe the district magnitude for each election. This has provided a possibility for redistricting the indigenous legislators in election. This paper aims at redistricting the boundary from multiple member district into single member district and assessing the potential impacts on the elections for indigenous legislators. Three redistricting proposals are provided by this paper, the result suggests that in general, the criteria for delimitation such as population equality, contiguity and compactness could all be achieved. As for the impacts of replacing the multiple member district by single member district, this paper suggests that since population from the four main tribes of Amis, Paiwan, Atayal and Bunun make up eighty percent of the indigenous population, the electoral result after redistricting will not be dramatically different from those of multiple member district, all the seats might remain to be shared by the four main tribes. It is argued that, since indigenous legislators enjoy a solid electoral base at home, redistricting the electoral boundary would not affect her/his prospects for electoral victory. Moreover, the redistricting would significantly reduce the size of district and thus enable a more thorough constituency service.

Abstract

The design of the electoral system includes seats, voting, and electoral districts. From the Seventh Legislative Yuan, the single electoral district and the two-vote system have been adopted. According to Article 35 of the “Civil Servants Election and Recall Act,” seat distribution in the Legislative Yuan is reconsidered every 10 years to account for changes in the population. In 2020, the number of lawmakers’ seats increased from 1 to 2 in Hsinchu County. This study employs a literature review to explore the voting system and legislative redistricting, as well as voting-behavior theory to discuss the issue of redrawing electoral districts in Hsinchu County. The findings include: (1) The legislators’ electoral districts of Hsinchu County are divided into a “Minnan-Hakka mixed constituency” and a “Hakka constituency”. Learning from Miaoli’s experience, Hsinchu may have one Minnan lawmaker and one Hakka lawmaker. (2) In order to win the 2020 legislative election, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is employing a new campaign strategy, namely, the “dual identity of political parties and ethnic groups” model, via nominating Hakka candidates in Hsinchu and Miaoli.