Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Gaye Christoffersen, H. Lyman Miller. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-96). Also available online.

This report focuses on expanding the understanding of the forces that bring about political participation in Taiwan during the 2004 presidential election year. The standard socioeconomic status model will serve as a useful baseline. Additional demographic and party related considerations are accumulated onto this socioeconomic model. Event count models such as the binomial and extended beta-binomial regression model will be analyzed and compared. The extended beta-binomial regression model will then be shown to be the superior model in this case. Both models will be estimated using the maximum likelihood estimation method. These two models are applied to Taiwan's Election and Democratization Study's 2004 post presidential election survey data. This report focuses on investigating the effects of ethnic background, party identification, and strength of partisanship on political participation while trying to confirm commonly expected trends in socioeconomic status, gender, and age effects. Gender and the ethnic background effect were found to have an unclear effect on political participation. The rest of the findings are as expected from the hypotheses. / text

The following report describes the making of the short film Running Upside Down in its entirety from the genesis of the idea to pre-production, production, post-production, and finally reflections and musings of the whole process. Running Upside Down is a story about a father and son’s journey to reconciliation though oceans apart and also of a young girl’s dream to travel to America. Supplemental materials to the report include the original script, budget and shooting schedule. This short film was produced as my Graduate Thesis Film in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin in fulfillment of my MFA in Film Production. / text

published_or_final_version / Comparative Literature / Master / Master of Philosophy

This dissertation studies the effect of both personal and national economic evaluations and social identity on individual vote choice in both Korea and Taiwan by utilizing and improving upon information-processing models developed in social psychology. Economic voting literature generally makes a strong claim that economic voting should affect individual voting behavior in all contexts. Information-processing models suggest, however, that attitudes about certain issues must be available and accessible, and that candidates must be distinctive on these issues, in order to have a bearing on individual behavior. I explain the varying effects of economic conditions and social identity on individual vote choice across elections and individuals in the two countries on the basis of changes in the accessibility of attitudes toward economic conditions and social identity and the distinctiveness of alternatives. Empirical findings in this dissertation show that (1) economic voting has a surprisingly limited explanatory power in both Korea and Taiwan, (2) individual political preferences are shaped less by self-interest or material well-being than by emotional attachment to social identity in a society where ethnocultural cleavages predominate politics, and (3) individual voters respond differently to short-term economic fluctuations, depending on their levels of education and their lifetime economic experiences. My study provides a new perspective on the nature and influence of economic conditions and identity issues on individual vote choice by accounting for variations in individuals and the political and social context in which they are situated. / text

Not available / text

published_or_final_version / Economics / Master / Master of Social Sciences

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / China Area Studies / Master / Master of Arts

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