台灣民眾民主價值及政治信任感研究—政黨輪替前後的比較

Abstract

一個國家人民民主價值的強弱對其民主政治的維繫和品質有關鍵性的影響，而選民的政治信任感高低也會影響政權或政府的正當性。本文研究的焦點即在於台灣民眾的民主價值和政治信任感，尤其是在政黨輪替前後之變化趨勢。作者先將相關問卷的結果作跨時性的整理，以了解全體選民態度變化的趨勢。接下來則分別探討政黨輪替前後影響民眾民主價值及政治信任感的因素。結果發現，台灣民眾的民主價值和政治信任感不論是在絕對值或是變化方向上，都還有進步的空間。而台灣民從的民主價值高低依序為平等原則、參政原則、自由原則、制衡原則和多元原則，在政黨輪替前後，十項價值中有八項是往退步的方向轉變。在政治信任感方面，民眾信任度由高而低的排序分別是「考慮民眾福利」、「首長信任」、「計畫能力」、「決定正確」、「浪費稅金」以及「官員清廉」。而政黨輪替之後，在政策制定的面向有進步，但是在可信度和操守兩個面向則都呈現退步的趨勢。在影響政黨輪替前後態度變化的因素上，省籍的影響並不顯著，但是黨派立場卻有相當程度的影響力，在政治信任感的部分尤其明顯。最後作者也簡單探討對於相關政治態度測量時，問卷的效度問題。

The democratic value of the people has key influence on the quality of democracy in a country, the level of political trust of the people also influences the legitimacy of the regime. This article focuses on the democratic value and political trust of Taiwanese people, placing emphasis on the changing pattern before and after the alternation of power. We first look at the attitude changes in these issues over time, then examine the factors influencing the attitude changes before and after the alternation of power. We found there is still room for improvements on these political attitudes. Taiwanese people`s democratic values ranking from high to low by order are principles of equality, political participation, freedom, check and balance, and diversity. After the alternation of power, eight out of ten principles showed a tendency of deterioration. On political trust, people`s trust level from high to low by order are `consider people`s welfare, `trust toward leaders,` `ablitity on planning,` `making the right decision,` `wasting tax money,` `integrity of politicians.` After the alternation of power, there are increased trust on the policy making dimension, but decreased trust on both credibility and integrity dimensions. On factors influencing these attitudes changes, ethnic background played only limited role but partisanship has a rather large influence, especially on the political trust level. Finally, we discuss the problem of validity of these questionnaires.