Partisan Engineered Identity? An Examination of Identity Issue in Taiwan's Elections.

This essay starts with a concern of Taiwan's recent elections that carry strong partisan competition and confrontations. In particular, the electoral impacts of provincial origins, party identification, national identity issue (defined as citizen's preference of unification, status quo or independence), and government performance are of central concerns. It argues that, citizen's provincial origins, due to Taiwan's unique political history, continues to play a significant role in citizen's vote choice. Also, citizen's national identity has been considered by many scholars as "the" most important issue in Taiwan election. This perception, albeit strong and popular, may come from partisan maneuvers. Or, candidates also tend to adopt a middle or ambiguous position to garner popular support in elections. The performance issue which is often regarded as less ideology-oriented also begins to exert certain impact in elections given citizens have more experiences of different governments in power. Face to face survey data of four presidential elections (1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008) and one telephone interview data will be used to analyze and compare the influence of these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]