Co-authored Paper Presentation @Glasgow EPSA
Electoral Systems and Party Convergence on Issue Attentions (with Yu-Ceng Liao)
This paper investigates how legislators respond to an electoral reform by adjusting their ideological positions with respect to co-partisans and rivals. Using data from Taiwan’s legislative roll calls over 20 years, we study the extent to which partisan disagreement is influenced by the 2008 Taiwanese electoral reform from Single Non-Transferable Votes (SNTV) to Single-Member Districts (SMD). Contrary to the literature, our empirical evidence shows that the reform significantly fragmented legislator positions in relation to both co-partisans and members from the rival party. In the years following the reform, disagreements between the mainstream parties gradually converged and returned to their pre-reform level. Our findings contribute to electoral system literature, providing policy implications for democratic countries contemplating electoral reforms.
Keywords：electoral reform, single-member districts (SMDs), roll call, political polarization