學者Kitschelt指出,連結類型機制在政治人物與選民互動過程中出現,存在於政治人物與選民之間。由選民觀點出發,選民所屬的與政治人物之連結機制,會影響選民的投票決定,而投票決定的研究則是一般目前選舉研究的大宗。本文嘗試在台灣選舉資料中套用並修正Kitschelt的連結分類,探討在台灣幾次重要選舉實例之中,以選民的角度出發,政治人物與選民之間的連結機制分布情況為何?此外分屬不同連結機制的選民基本特徵為何?另外,進一步描繪在時間進程、立委選制改變以及不同層級選舉,三個時空環境轉換以及差異之下,台灣選民所屬之各連結類型之變遷樣貌。 本文採用開放題來重新歸類選民與政治人物的連結類型,並且在實證分析過程中獲得幾個觀察結果。首先,近年來在選舉過程中,「政黨因素」類型重要性上升。其次,立委選制改變之後,政黨認同的有無確實對於選民屬於何種連結類型有著較為明顯的影響力;不過改制之後,在人際與社會關係類型上似乎沒有太多差異,暫時並未出現當初改革選制希望可降低候選人依靠非政黨人際關係來獲取選票的情況。最後,總統選舉與立委選舉出現層級上的差異,在立委選舉中選民較多屬於「候選人因素」類型,而在總統選舉時則是較多屬於「政黨因素」類型;另外在立委選舉時,選民更在意與候選人之間的「人際與社會關係」。
Following Kitschelt, politicians form linkages with voters to secure electoral support. The main focus of this thesis is to apply Kitschelt’s model of political linkages to Taiwan’s voters, and further to propose revisions of Kitschelt’s model to account for different types of linkages in Taiwan. The paper also examines the evolution of electoral linkages over time, in particular with respect to changes produced by reform to the voting system for the legislature, and compares linkages at different levels of election The paper examines linkages by using open-ended questions. Analysis of the data obtained produces a number of findings. First, the “party” linkage is becoming increasingly important. Second, following reform to the voting system for the Legislative Yuan, party identity had a significant impact on political linkage. However, the proportion referring to the “interpersonal relationship and social network” linkage did not change much, suggesting that the reform has so far not been successful in its objective of reducing reliance on personal networks. Third, we found different results depending on the level of election. In legislative elections, the “candidate” linkage is stronger, whereas in presidential elections the “party” linkage is dominant. Moreover, when compared to voters in presidential elections, voters in legislative elections place more emphasis on the “interpersonal relationship and social network ” linkage.