« Taiwan Journal of Political Science No.89Publish: 2021/09

Why Do People Dislike Both the KMT and the DPP:Exploring the Sources of Anti-Party Sentiment in Taiwan

Author: Tsong-Jyi Lin, Yi-ching Hsiao

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

Although the KMT and the DPP have dominated the Taiwanese political arena in the long run, there has been a lastingmass dissatisfaction with both parties. This study attempts to explore the causes of anti-party sentiment in Taiwan. According to the literature, there are two main sources of anti-party sentiment: (1) major parties’ unresponsiveness to voters’ demands; (2) misbehavior and corruption of party elites. By using the data of Taiwan’s Election & Democratization Study (TEDS) 2020, this study applies four measurements of anti-party sentiment: issue distance and party performance for the first source, and elite behavior and legislature performance for the second source. By controlling for demographic variables, political knowledge, and party identification, statistical models reveal that policy alienation as well as low evaluations for party performance, elite behavior, and legislature performance are related to high anti-party sentiment. In general, the four hypotheses raised by this study are verified by the data of TEDS 2020.

Keywords:Anti-party Sentiment、Governance Efficiency、party identification、political corruption、Political Elite