The Impact of Issues on the 2016 Presidential Election in Taiwan

Abstract

The dramatic DPP victory suggested that fundamental change may have commenced in the nature of Taiwan politics, particularly in the partisan balance (Clark, Ho, and Tan, 2016; Hsieh, 2016; Templeman, 2016). Another area of possible change is the relationship between the issue position of Taiwan voters and their voting patterns. For most of the country’s democratic history national identity has been the dominant issue in its politics (Clark and Tan, 2012; Fell, 2005, 2012; Hsieh, 2002, 2016). Two other issues may be becoming more salient, however. First, Taiwan’s declining economic performance could have made economic issues more important; and, second, widespread alienation from political elites could have become a significant issue as well. This paper, then, explores how issues affected presidential vote in the 2016 elections. The first section provides an overview of the election; the second describes the research design; and the third reports our analysis.