Amongst a variety of political attitudes, party identification is generally accepted as an important psychological component. Given the academic importance and practical value of this topic, this study examines characteristics of partisans and independent voters, including their sociodemographic characteristics and political attitudes. To this end, I first review the trend in the party identification of Taiwan's voters from 1990 to 2006, using nation-wide survey data obtained from the Taiwan Social Change Survey(TSCS) in various years. I then analyze the 2006 TSCS data(fifth wave of the second phase: section of citizens and nation), and the methodology adopted in this study involves two steps. The first approach is the use of cross-tabulation analyses, and the second method employs a multinomial logit model to evaluate the simultaneous effects of independent variables on the dependent variable. The results reveal that variables of age, ethnicity, region, household income, political interest, evaluation of governmental performance, and microeconomic conditions are significantly different among pan-Blue supporters, pan-Green supporters, and independents. It should be noted that political developments in 2006 might have had a contextual impact on party identification, and this needs to be explored in more depth. In the conclusion, major findings are reviewed, limitations of this study are outlined, and suggestions are made for future research.
