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Abstract

Given that ethnicity and identity are the principal factors of political cleavage in Taiwan, this article explores the following questions: Whether individuals Taiwanese/Chinese identities are influenced by their spouses' ethnic background? If so, whose identities are more likely to be shaped by the intensive interactions between husbands and wives in a marriage? Answers to these questions are helpful to researchers who are interested in assessing the effect of political socialization experiences during adulthood. This article analyzes pooled survey data from Taiwan's Election and Democratization Study and the main findings are: (1) Ethnic background affects the respondents' self-identities. (2) Respondents tend to marry within their ethnic group. (3) Respondents' self-identities are influenced by their spouses' ethnic background. (4) Although females' self-identities are generally affected by their spouses' ethnicity, the best-educated females' self-identities are less likely to be changed after getting married. (5) The best-educated males' self-identities are more likely to be shifted after getting married than their female counterparts.

Abstract

Although public opinion in Taiwan is increasingly in favor of gay rights, there is no corresponding trend at the elite level and no concrete policy changes have been achieved. Based on the logic of electoral competition and political socialization, this paper takes the 2014 elections for municipal councilors in Taiwan as an example and examines the factors influencing support for LGBT equality among local politicians. Theoretically, although the centrifugal effect of the SNTV system motivates candidates of the same party to differ from each other on a variety of issues, political socialization, on the contrary, encourages a more unified issue stance taken among party members. The results of multilevel models suggest that there is little linkage between the characteristics of constituents, the electoral rule, and candidates’ stances on gay rights. However, both partisanship and age play an indispensable role. Candidates who are members of the DPP or one of the liberal parties are more likely to support LGBT rights than their KMT counterparts.