在晚近的政治社會學文獻中,企業的政治獻金分析是探討企業政治權力的一個重要取徑,然而在台灣,這類的議題仍然沒有較有系統的研究。本文以2006 年台灣最大的503 個民營企業集團為分析樣本,整合2008 年第七屆立委選舉的政治獻金帳戶資訊,並透過物質利益、階級霸權以及菁英核心圈三個主要理論觀點來檢視台灣企業集團從事政治獻金的影響因素。統計分析數據顯示,集團的規模越大、家族控制的集團以及企業家族的能見度越高者,其進行政治獻金的傾向越強。此外,相較於其他產業,資訊電子業政治捐獻的程度顯著地較低。這些發現顯示以傳統產業為主的大型家族企業集團是台灣的政治獻金活動中的主導力量,也反映了台灣的市場體制中特殊的政治經濟結構特色。
Political sociologists have long been analyzing political donation data of businesses to evaluate the extent to which corporate power intervenes in political processes. In this paper, the campaign contribution data of business groups in the 2008 legislator election is collected and examined with three major theoretical viewpoints: the material interest, class hegemony, and the inner circle theories. Empirical evidence shows that business groups that are larger in size, of family-owned, and feature controlling families with higher in social status are more likely to contribute to legislator candidates. Moreover, business groups operating in the information technology industry are less likely to contribute. These results indicate that large domestic-oriented and family-owned business groups are the key donors to political campaigns, wich reflects the unique political-economic nature of contemporary Taiwan.