The Basis of Policy Opinion: A Case of Administrative Elite in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Jhi-Kuen Chen, 陳智昆
• Other Authors: Chilik Yu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/8yxsfc

碩士 === 世新大學 === 行政管理學研究所(含博、碩專班) === 96 === Public opinion is an important reference source for governmental policy process. However, it is questionable on practicability to policy because of its lack of information. To tackle this problem, some students advocate the “professional poll” (survey opinions from experts or professionals). It is interesting to know if professionals provide policy opinion with professionalism completely. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the basis of policy opinion from professionals. Is the opinion based upon psychological factors, background factors or else? This thesis selects administrative elite in Taiwan as a case because they have access to intensive policy information. Using secondary analysis, this thesis applies the Index for Tolerance of Politics (ITP), the Elitism Index (EI), representative bureaucracy theory and role theory to detect the sources of administrative elite’s policy opinion. According to these theories, ITP, EI, gender, partisanship, father’s birthplace and agency category are set as independent variables; 28 controversial policy issues are used as dependent variables. Furthermore, the dependent variables are constructed into various indices through factor analysis, and these indicies are used for multiple regression analysis. The findings show that all independent variables are, to a certain extent, important basis of policy opinion of administrative elite, but their influence varies with different policy issues. Although all administrative elites hold intensive policy information, they are still conditioned by psychological and background factors in developing their opinion, whether they are conscious or unconscious.