台灣民眾的黨性極化及其對民主態度的影響

The People's Partisan Polarization and Its Influence on the Attitudes toward Democracy in Taiwan

關於政治極化的討論，過去文獻從兩個取向進行分析，一是以民眾在意識型態或議題立場上的距離分布來測量，另一種則是從民眾對於政黨的情感反應來檢視。但不論是從哪一種取向來分析，政治極化對於民主政治運作的影響，都存在正反不同的論述。本文以台灣政治運作為背景，認為民眾的政治極化存在於情感上的黨性對立，而這種黨性極化恐會對台灣民主政治的實務運作產生負面評價，甚至動搖民眾的民主信念。為此，本文利用民意調查的方式，從社會認同理論出發，以社會距離的概念測量民眾的黨性極化，並檢測黨性極化是否對民主運作評價及民主信念產生負面影響。研究發現，以社會距離測量黨性極化具備信度與效度，且多數國民黨及民進黨認同者確實存在情感上的黨性極化，尤其，國民黨認同者的極化程度明顯高於民進黨認同者。此外，民眾的黨性極化雖然會對民主政治的運作評價存在負面影響，所幸並不會動搖民眾心中的民主信念，這對台灣民主政治的運作雖是正向訊息，但為求民主政治運作順暢，也應避免情感上黨性極化的持續升高。

There are two approaches used to detect the people's political polarization in the literature. One is to locate people on the spectrum of ideology in order to calculate the distances among them regarding their positions on issues. The other is to measure the people's affective attitude towards parties. Regardless of which approach is adopted, the political polarization undoubtedly has both a positive and negative influence on democracy at the same time. This study argues that the affective polarization of partisanship exists among the people of Taiwan and should negatively influence the evaluation of the working of democracy, and even destabilize the people's democratic beliefs. In order to verify the above arguments based on the social identity theory, the concept of social distance was used to measure the people's partisan polarization and to detect its influence on political attitudes toward democracy. The findings of the research are as follows. First, the study both reliably and validly measures the affective polarization of partisanship based on the concept of social distance. Second, the majority of the KMT's and DPP's supporters are characterized by affective polarization, especially the KMT's supporters, whose level of polarization is higher than that of the DPP's supporters. Third, partisan polarization negatively influences the working of democracy but does not erode the people's democratic beliefs. To sum up, although this research provides a relatively positive message for the working of democracy in Taiwan, the affective polarization of partisanship among the people should be prevented from rising continually to enable the democratic processes to function smoothly.