First Experience: Citizens' Perception, Participation, and Evaluation of the New Legislative Electoral System in Taiwan

Abstract

In 2008, Taiwan adopted a new mixed member system which is significantly different from the long-implemented SNTV-MMD system for the election of legislators. The new system cuts the number of legislative seats from 225 to 113, extends legislators' terms of office from three years to four, and most importantly, adopts a new mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) electoral system to replace the SNTV system for legislative elections. The election of legislators in 2008 was the first time that this new mixed electoral system was implemented in Taiwan. Mainstream literature continues to discuss the electoral impact on political parties and candidates by the new system while citizens' knowledge of the new system and its concomitant effects on citizens' behavior receive less attention. Worse still, almost all of the literature assumes that voters were fully aware of the operation and impact of the new electoral system and cast their ballots wisely. The purpose of this paper is to explore citizen's perceptions, participation and evaluation of this new system.