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It is widely believed that identity with Taiwanese or Chinese is the major cleavage in Taiwan. People who hold Taiwanese identity tend to vote for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and those who identify themselves as both Chinese and Taiwanese are likely to vote for the Kuomintang. As the proportion of Taiwanese identifiers increases, the geographical difference seems to persist. Whether national identity is associated with regional line and why they are correlated is a pressing question. This paper uses the 2012 presidential election survey data to explore the extent to which regional divide accounts for national identity. Using generalized linear mixed effect model (GLMM), this research finds minor regional divide in terms of ethnicity concentration and economic structure. However, ethnic background is influential on national identity while retrospective evaluation and democratic value are significant predictors. This mixed result suggests that people in Taiwan have united national identity should geographical difference remain or even decrease, and that we should remain watchful about the influence of democratic value and economic concern.

Conventional belief suggests that the ruling party in the 'single non-transferable voting' (SNTV) system can often coordinate legislative candidates through the allocation of resources, and previous research shows that both local factions and budget distribution influence the process of candidate coordination. Modeling the seat shares of the Kuomintang (KMT) in the 1992, 1995, 1998 and 2001 legislative elections, this article contends that the number of local factions and chairmen in parliament largely determines the KMT's seat gains. Evidence shows that the KMT was apt to coordinate candidates through the position of committee chairpersons in the Legislative Yuan, and its failure to do so in the 2001 election contributed to its fall.

While prior scholarship has dedicated substantial attention to theoretically discussing communicative democracy, there has been a notable dearth of empirical research examining its political implications. This study endeavors to bridge this gap by exploring the impact of prioritizing communicative democracy in policy-making on electoral support. Through a conjoint experiment conducted in Taiwan, this study finds that candidates who emphasize communicative democracy, characterized by transparent communication, active engagement, and meaningful dialogue, are more likely to be chosen by voters over those who focus on majority rule. This preference highlights a broader desire for inclusivity and policies reflecting diverse viewpoints. As the first empirical investigation, the findings contribute to our understanding of voter values around communication and inclusivity in democracy, indicating a shift toward valuing collaborative policy development.

Most of the extant research on the relationship between democratic values and democratic support examine the issue from the perspective of the evolution of democratic culture and institutional learning. These studies conclude that it takes time for people to understand the essence of democracy and to support democracy. We argue that a certain value orientation is crucial to democratic support at some stages of democratic transition. To empirically examine the association between the different dimensions of democratic values and democratic support, we analyzed survey data from 1995 to 2020 in Taiwan. Based on item response theory, we found that, first, throughout that 25-year period, we can distinguish three dimensions of democratic values in Taiwan; second, Taiwanese considered fundamental human rights to be an essential democratic value; and finally, the curvilinear relationship between democratic support and separation of powers implies that Taiwanese people emphasize electoral democracy more than horizontal accountability after democratization is complete.

This study examines the effect of social media use on voter turnout. Given that different social media platforms provide different types of content and people use different social media platforms for different purposes, this study argues that there exist differentiated relationships between different types of social media and voter turnout. Using an original panel data set for the 2018 Taipei mayoral election in Taiwan, this study evaluates how five different types of social media—Facebook, LINE, YouTube, Instagram, and PTT—influence voter participation. The empirical results show that people with frequent use of Facebook and PTT are more likely to vote, whereas the frequent use of YouTube and Instagram decreases voter turnout. Furthermore, the use of LINE has no influence on voter participation. Overall, this study reveals that different types of social media exert heterogeneous effects on voter turnout and suggests that when it comes to the influence of social media on voter turnout, we should pay attention to not only the frequency of social media use but also the purpose of social media use.

Since 1986, Taiwan has entered an era of party competition and witnessed the flourishing of political parties in terms of the number of parties and their relative strength. We find that the vacillation in the proportion of nonpartisanship is remarkable before and after the relinquishing of KMT dominance in 2000. We argue that partisans may conceal their party attachment if their parties fail to live up to their expectations. The experience of the changing Taiwanese electorate has theoretical implications for other consolidating democracies, especially the eastern European countries that also had one single dominant party before regime change.

We propose, in this article, a model for multimember districts in which voting choice is a function of the product of relative benefits and the probability of breaking a tie between their preferred party and its trailing party. We transform people's perception of the parties' positions on specific issues in order to obtain the probability of each party winning. "Feeling thermometer" and "like/dislike" questions are employed to measure the perceived benefit that an individual might expect to receive from each party if elected. We test our model using the 1995, 1998, and 2001 legislative elections in Taiwan, simulating the level of closeness with logistic estimates. Based on the simulation, we identify four types of voting behavior: sincere, straightforward, irrational, and strategic. The study of these four types of voting behavior sheds light on party competition in Taiwan and provides models likely to be useful elsewhere as well.