為什麼縣市議員候選人在地方選舉中提出全國性政見?很少臺灣研究提供議員候選人的政見制定行為的詳細解釋。本文認為,縣市議員候選人為了因應黨內競爭而提出全國性政見,以建立個人特色來提升自己在選區的可識別度。在這篇文章中,我們結合來自2018年南部議員選舉的觀察性數據和質性訪談來驗證這項假設。我們找到黨內競爭會影響民進黨籍候選人提出全國性政見的動機的強烈證據;同時,全國性政見也提升候選人在選區內的可識別度。但是此一現象並未出現在國民黨籍議員候選人身上。這些發現擴展我們對地方選舉制度和立法者行為關係的認知。綜合以上,我們也基於這些研究發現來討論未來研究方向。
Why do county and city councilors present national manifestos in local elections? I argue that municipal councilors present national manifestos for intraparty competition. It could enhance their personal identities in the electoral constituency by establishing their candidate traits. In this study, I combine observational data from the southern Taiwan council election in 2018 and qualitative interviews to examine this hypothesis. My findings suggest that motivations of presenting national manifestos were boosted by intraparty competition among DPP candidates. In the meantime, it enhanced their personal identities in the electoral constituency. However, this trend did not show on KMT candidates. These findings expand our knowledge of the local electoral system and legislator behavioral relationship. To sum up, I also discuss future research based on these studies.