Suchergebnisse

This paper analyzes the extent to which the performances of local and national governments can shape local election outcomes. Specifically, we use various waves of survey data from Taiwan's Elections and Democratization Studies (TEDS) to explore whether a person's assessments of local and central government performances affect his/her vote for the incumbent party candidate. Our empirical findings partially verify the so-called "referendum theory" and can be summarized as follows: First, voters who hold a positive assessment of the performance of local government are more likely to vote for an incumbent who seeks reelection, but this is not necessarily the case for an incumbent party candidate in an open-seat contest. Second, Taiwan's local elections cannot be regarded as referenda on the central government because the central government approval rating does not consistently affect vote choices across different types/levels of local elections.

During the Ma Ying-jeou presidency in Taiwan (2008–2016), confrontations over relations with mainland China stressed the country's institutions, leading to a political crisis. Nevertheless, its democracy proved to be resilient. The authors of Dynamics of Democracy in Taiwan explore key aspects of the complicated Ma era, including party politics and elections, the sources of Ma's governance challenges, changing public opinion, protest movements, and shifts in the regional balance of power