| dc.description.abstract | Ethnic group is playing a crucial role in Taiwan’s political stage since 1990s with national identity being linked closely to the political conflicts as well as policies.
The concrete role of ethnic groups in politics has been the subject of attention for long. For the general public, political participation is an obvious and direct way of reaching out to political issues, and by compare and contrast different ways of political participation, we can observe the characteristics of political participation among different ethnic groups. For instance, how political participation is influenced by the culture of ethnic groups, genders as well as generations.
With regard to the methodology and participants of the study, Taiwanese with citizenship aged 20 or above in Miaoli County were selected as the survey subject. A total of 558 valid sample data were collected through phone interviews. Cross-comparison and regression analysis were used to explore the impact of ethnic groups differences on different types of political participation, voting behavior between ethnic groups, differences in voting preferences, elaboration of the role of political participation in ethnic groups through intermediary model. The study has revealed three facts:
First and foremost, political participation is low in general. Two types of political participation are observed including passive and active. In this study, the political participation is reckoned as passive.
Secondly, differences in level of political participation are observed among different ethnic groups. More concretely speaking, the level political participation is higher in Hakka ethnic groups compared to Hoklos ethnic groups. Besides, age differences also have life cycle effect in political participation. According to the study, the level of political participation will first increase with the increase of age and later with the decrease in level. The level of political participation is also higher in male compared to female. After all, with the different agents of political participation, ethnics, age, gender, will intensify its effects on voting.
Finally, voting preferences are influenced by many factors. For instance, Miaoli County favor politicians with positive personal images and good policies. Whether he or she belongs to certain political parties or having the influences in hometown will not be considered as important.
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