Abstract
This article presents an empirical analysis of TV and newspaper advertising across four presidential election campaigns in Taiwan. The findings suggest that although there are high levels of negativity, negative claims are a potential source of substantive information for voters. The findings support theoretical expectations derived from work in the US, and confirm that negative advertising can be a prevalent mode of campaign communication in non-western, newer democracies.
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Notes
Quoted in The Washington Post, November 3rd 2002.
Although Taiwan is arguably a multi-party democracy [10], the decision to limit the analysis to the two main parties in Taiwanese politics was based on the electoral dominance of KMT and DPP candidates in the elections covered.
I.E. 28 days prior to Election Day.
In short, this campaign was largely fought on issues and ideological themes that were ‘owned’ by the two parties. The evidence that Li provided in his newspaper ads was predominantly used in support of strategic appeals related to the state of the race, not issues or ideology.
In one of the memorable images of the 2004 campaign, Lian and Song prostrated themselves and kissed the ground to show their love for Taiwan.
For example by spending an increasingly large proportion of their campaign budgets on advertising [27].
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Cees van der Eijk, Phil Cowley, Will Lowe and Tim Veen for their comments. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties Conference in Manchester, 2008. I thank panel participants for their feedback.
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Sullivan, J. Defending Negativity? Evidence from Presidential Campaigns in Taiwan. East Asia 26, 305–320 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-009-9094-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12140-009-9094-z