Social Capital and Political Accountability: An Empirical Study of Taiwan

• Main Authors: ZHANG, JIA-HAO, 張家豪
• Other Authors: CHANG, WEN-CHUN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/865t78

碩士 === 國立臺北大學 === 財政學系 === 103 === After the lifting of martial law in 1987, the political system in Taiwan has transformed from authoritarianism to democracy. But the corruptions of politicians, government officers, congressman, and political leaders are still heard from time to time. Along with the transformation of political system to democracy, social network of the society also becomes more intense. Through social networking, the mutual trust among people and social norms are continuously developed and cultivated, and these important elements constitute the so-called social capital. When a country has a higher level of social capital, it can reduce costs of information exchange and communication, and as a result it reduces social costs. By the functions of social capital that enhance people’s engagements in politics, corruptive politician and government officials can be punished. Using the data drawn from Asian Barometer Survey of Democracy, Governance and Development, this study investigates the relationship between social capital and political accountability in Taiwan. According to previous literature, the types of social capital are classified into generalized trust, generalized attitudes and norms, and community participation. Subsequently, the impacts of social capital on political accountability are explored. Using the method of ordered logit estimation, the empirical results show that social capital can enhance the political accountability.