Social Networks and Voting Behavior: An Analysis of the 2004 Legislative Elections in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Yan-zhen Tang, 湯晏甄
• Other Authors: Shiow-duan Hawang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/24876494175601939074

碩士 === 東吳大學 === 政治學系 === 95 === This research aims at examining whether the public’s voting behavior is influenced by people’s social networks in Taiwan. Different from the approaches emphasizing “sociodemographic factor” in the previous studies of social networks and voting behavior, this research employs the “social network” as its theoretical framework, analyzing the influences of social networks on voters’ voting participation, partisan vote-choice, and the degree of consistency of the partisan vote-choice during the legislative election in 2004. The results confirm that the social network is the very important factor to influence the voter’s voting behavior. The higher the degree of homogeneous social networks and the stronger the ties with social networks, the more the voters are likely to participate in voting. When voters are in the same partisan social networks, the higher the degree of homogeneous social networks and the stronger the ties with social networks, the more the personal partisan vote-choice is influenced by the network’s partisan. The higher the degree of homogeneous social networks and the stronger the ties with social networks, the higher the degree of consistency of the partisan vote-choice within the network members; In addition, the more the voters participate in supporting the pan-blue groups, the higher the degree of consistency of the partisan vote-choice within the network members.