Collective interests and private interests are often at odds in political life.  If faced with such a dilemma, what stance would Taiwanese take?  By starting from the problem, we employ cross-Strait exchanges as the case, and examine the choices of the Taiwanese people.  We conduct three cross-sectional surveys to observe the dynamics of their choices both with and without dilemmas.  Our research findings suggest that these people care about both collective and private interests.  If the two are directly at odds with each other, these people will, however, normally be caught in between and

In a democracy, any given governmental branch needs public support for the fundamentals of institutional legitimacy, and the judiciary is no exception.  This study examines the popular views and evaluations of the judicial system in Taiwan.  I employ the “2003 Taiwan Election and Democratization Study: Democratization and Political Transition” (TEDS 2003) survey date to assess the public’s attitudes toward courts and other political institutions, and thereupon the factors influencing public support for the judicial system.  Methodologically, the judicial evaluations are classified into four

The position of the Taiwanese people over unification-independence issue assumes enormous practical importance and at the same time attracts numerous scholarly debates. The primary concern of these debates is how to clarify the issue entangled with “principles” and “pragmatism” and then uncover the genuine preferences of the Taiwanese people. For the purpose, lots of measurements have been developed and evaluated. The focus of the paper is those who prefer “status-quo” in the traditional unification-independence measurement.