TW
EN
News
About
Editorial Foreword
Open Access
Purpose
Editorial Foreword
Open Access
Purpose
Editorial Board
Edit Committee
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Publish
Edit Committee
Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
Publish
Contribution
Submission Guideline
Peer Review
Paper Format
Submission Guideline
Peer Review
Paper Format
Submit online
Issues
Latest papers
Current papers
Backissues
Latest papers
Current papers
Backissues
Search results
home Home navigate_next Search results

Search results

Abstract

Since the direct presidential election was held in Taiwan 12 years ago, for the first time a significant voting gender gap appeared in the 2008 presidential election. Women voters supported candidate Ma which boosted him winning the president election. This study attempts to explore why there was such a substantial gender gap in that election. To explain the gender gap, we first compared the factors in explaining voting decision-candidate evaluation, issue positions, socioeconomic factors, and party identification, to see if gender gap exists in these factors. Furthermore, we applied the logit models to examine whether gender differences in these factors lead to voting gender gap. The models show that although gender gaps were evident on voters' candidate evaluation, party identification, some issue positions and socioeconomic conditions, not all of these differences translated into voting gender gaps. Gender differences in party identification remained the strongest factor in explaining gender difference in voting choices. Comparatively, the voting gender gap caused by party identification is evident in that women were less likely to identify with pan-Green party, and pan-Green women might vote across their party line. We further examine respectively the interaction between voters' party identification and candidate factor, and the interaction between voters' party identification and issue evaluation. The results show that candidate factor is not the underlying factor linking the gender gap in party identification and voting gender gap. But the distance of issue positions between voters and parties/candidates on social welfare and environment might explain why women voters identify differently from men with parties and how these differences transfer into voting gender gaps.

Keywords

gender gap
Ma's effect
party identification
issue position
candidate evaluation

Abstract

This study aims to examine the dispute within literature concerning independent voters, differentiate independent voters in Taiwan, and therefore explore factors affecting their vote choices. Through analysis of the data from Taiwan's Election and Democratization Study, 2008 (TEDS2008P): Presidential Election, the preliminary findings are as follows: first, there are at least three major disputes in the literature, including the conceptualization and typology of independent voters, the measurement and operationalization of independent voters, and the explanation of why and how people become independent voters. Second, there is indeed a substantial distinction between pure independents and independent leaners in Taiwan. Third, short-term party preference and the overall evaluation of candidates are the two most significant factors affecting independents' vote choices. In addition, retrospective voting exerts different level of effect on these two independents. Specifically, while satisfaction with the incumbent plays more important role on independent leaners than on pure independents, overall evaluation of candidates seems to affect pure independents more than its counterpart. The explanatory power of party preference, however, is uniform to both kinds of voters.

Keywords

pure independents
independent leaners
party identification
retrospective voting

Abstract

According to The American Voter, party identification affects voters' attitudes, feelings, even the voting behavior towards political parties. In Taiwan, party identification indeed has fundamental effects on voters' voting behavior. But there is still something that can't be explained. This study found that negative identification against a specific party is also a crucial factor that affects voters' voting behavior. The negative attitude towards a specific party is a long-term, consistent attitude. And it is very hard to change.The study employed methods including in-depth interviews, focus groups and telephone survey to investigate the issue. First, results from qualitative research indicated that three factors, namely, national identity, ethnic identity and party image are the roots of the voters' negative attitude toward a specific party. The study also developed a questionnaire to measure the negative attitudes toward a specific party of the voters in Taiwan; 46.3% of the survey respondents expressed that there is one or more than one parties they would have never voted for. We then combined the traditional party identification variable and the newly-developed ”which party that you will never vote for” variable into a new party identification indicator. Empirical studies using survey data showed that the new variable were good in both validity and reliability tests and was doing very well in explaining voters' voting behavior in Taiwan.

Keywords

party identification
negative party identification against a specific party
new party identification variable

Abstract

This study examines whether people's interpersonal relationship and social environments are important resources, which affect individuals' opinion expressions. Different from the approaches such of ”socio-demographic factors” and ”political mobilization” in the existing literature on political participation, this study uses ”cross-pressures” as its theoretical framework, analyzing the influence posed by cross-pressures on persons' inclination to express their own political opinions in the 2008 Legislative Yuan elections. The cross-pressures might be especially salient when their political positions are different from those of their family members. We employ the 2008 Taiwan Election and Democratization Study (TEDS 2008) survey data, using ”cross-tabulation analyses” and ”multinomial logit models” to investigate the association between four-type respondents and political expressions. Note that the variable of ”party identification” is employed as the proxy for tapping the concept of political expression. The findings reveal that the variables of gender, age, ethnicity, Taiwanese/Chinese consciousness, unification/independence preference, cross-pressures, and four-type respondents are the significant factors associated with an individual’s expression of party identification, and most of them run in the expected directions. More importantly, some respondents refuse to express their real partisan preferences and therefore report themselves as ”independents” during face-to-face interviews when they are under social interactions with cross-pressures. The results confirm the major hypothesis of this research: individuals having homogeneous social interactions and under low-level cross-pressures are predisposed to talk about politics, while people in cross-pressures involving greater political disagreement are less likely to express their political preferences.

Keywords

interpersonal network
cross-pressure
opinion expression
party identification

Abstract

This article examines across-strait trade openness and vote choices in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections. We first demonstrate two trends about economic assessments in the 2008 and 2012 elections. First, more and more people consider the economic effect of economic openness as neutral. Next, respondents decouple their assessments in the aggregate level and family level. While a substantial percentage of voters still think that economic openness has been bringing about economic prosperity for Taiwan, it has not done so at the family level. As to the effect of economic assessment, we find that the traditional economic voting battery does not exert comparable effect on voting as economic openness. Next, the socio-tropic assessment of economic openness is relatively more important than the pocket-book assessment. More importantly, we demonstrate how political identities, party identification and unification-independence choice, shape the influence of economic assessment on voting decisions. In general, economic assessments exert greater effects on pan-blue and pro-unification voters, while exert smaller effects on pan-green and pro-independence voters. This pattern is mainly associated with the extent that incoming messages are congruent with voters' existing beliefs.

Keywords

economic voting
cross-strait economic openness
party identification
unification-independence choice
presidential election

Abstract

In 2008 presidential election, Taiwan for the first time appeared a significant gender gap in voting; in 2012 presidential election, the first female presidential candidate arose to challenge the incumbent. To compare the changes between these two elections, this study uses ”Taiwan's Election and Democratization Study (TEDS)” panel data (2008P-2012) to observe the stability/change and the patterns of gender gap among the same set of voters. The analysis shows that women voters are more likely than men to change their votes from the KMT candidate to the DPP candidate. The transferring pattern of women voters accounts for the shrink of the voting gender gap comparing to the last election. In terms of the explanation for the voting change, we compare three factors, the party identification, candidate evaluation and issue effect. All of these three factors affect voting decisions to different extent, but in explaining gender difference of the voting change, only the candidate factor is significant. Voting change is mainly due to the female voters with stable party identification, transferring their votes from the KMT to DPP candidate. Among those female voters, some of them are stable DPP supporters who voted for Ma in the 2008 election and returned to vote for DPP candidate Tsai, and still some are stable KMT supporters who cross their party line to vote for their preferred DPP candidate Tsai. Comparing these two presidential elections with panel data, we can conclude that men are more likely to stick to their party identification in casting their ballots, whereas women are more likely to be influenced by other factors besides party identification. And this time, the other factor is the candidate. For those female voters who give the DPP candidate higher evaluation, voting transfer is a natural result.

Keywords

gender gap
female presidential candidate
party identification
candidate factor
issue voting

Abstract

Unlike conventional presidential elections in which ethnic identity, unification and independence, and economic development were the core issues of political competitions, in the 2012 presidential election, the issue of social justice and redistribution firstly was included in the candidates' platforms. This article investigates the question of redistribution from the theoretical perspectives and political competition, and explains the variation in the voters' opinions on this issue. By incorporating the TEDS 2012 data with structural equation modeling, we find that the theories of classical political economy, the supply theory of public goods, and party identity all provide explanations for this issue. In addition, we also find that although the cross-strait economic and trade exchange does not directly influence people's opinions toward redistribution, nevertheless, it impacts their attitudes toward their future household income, and indirectly affects their standpoints on the redistributive issues.

Keywords

redistribution
income inequality
rational choice
party identification
public goods provision

Abstract

Due to inherent difficulties of minority surveys, our understanding of indigenous election politics largely depends on qualitative studies. However, such studies usually lead to contradictory results because of different cases or interviewees. It is hard to develop a general explanation. This paper, as the very first one to study the relationship between party image and indigenous voting choice by implementing a quantitative method in Taiwan, can improve our understanding of indigenous voting behavior and lay a foundation for future relevant studies.
The research results indicate that indigenous voting choice is influenced by party image. Party image affects voting choice significantly. Even under the condition of controlling party identification, the influence of party image on voting choice is still significant. In other words, party image is differs from party identification conceptually but both affect voting choice. This study found that when the direction of party image is the same as party identification, voting choice tends to be consistent with party image and party identification. However, for political neutrals, due to the fact that the DPP’s party image is “making progress, changing the status quo, and offering more opportunities to young people,” which is more attractive than the KMT’s party “conservative” image, they tend to vote DPP.

Keywords

indigenous voter
party image
party identification
voting choice

Abstract

Recent political protests led by young people in Taiwan appear to reflect a strong sense of attachment to their identity as Taiwanese. Employing survey data collected for the 2016 presidential election, this study confirms that Taiwanese identity continues to grow among the island citizens, particularly among the younger generations. While identity exerts a powerful effect on how people vote, there is also a visible generational gap. Members of the younger generations are less likely to be affected by their Taiwanese identity than older ones.

Keywords

political generation
national identity
vote choice
party identification