本文摘要 自由公平的選舉是民主政治的核心價值。透過定期改選，民眾依據 執政者的施政表現決定投票意向，即是責任政治的展現。而依據學理探 討，政府的施政表現在不同層級的地方選舉中，對選民的投票抉擇應有 不同的影響。在層級較高的選舉，中央政府施政表現的影響較大；而 在地方基層選舉，地方政府施政表現的影響力則應相對較高。本文以 2009年雲林縣縣長及鄉鎮市長選舉為例，利用「台灣選舉與民主化調 查」於選後所進行的面訪調查資料進行檢證。結果發現，選民在縣長選 舉的投票抉擇上，不論是對中央政府或縣政府的施政表現評價，皆具有 顯著的影響效果。但在鄉鎮市長選舉方面，中央政府或縣政府的施政表 現評價，則皆不具顯著影響力，甚至政黨認同的解釋力亦大幅下降。作 者認為這主要是因為地方選舉型態的特性，以及此次選舉雙方實力差距 懸殊的結果導致。此外，本研究也突顯出地方派系在地方基層選舉運作 上的影響力不容忽視。

Abstract Free and fair election is the core of democracy. Regular election in turn is the most important vehicle for the electorate to hold the ruling party and government accountable. This paper, based on theoretical arguments, elaborates the effects of government performance at different levels of elections. We argue that the higher the level of elections, the higher the level of government is held accountable by the electorate, while at the bottom local level elections, only the local government performance matters. In the county magistrate’s election, the central government’s performance should play a more important role on voter choice. By contrast, in the township magistrate’s election, the local government’s performance should have greater effects on voter choice. We test this proposition with the case of Yunlin in the 2009 county and township magistrates’ elections with the survey data collected by the Taiwan’s Election and Democratization Study (TEDS) project. We find that indeed voter choice in county magistrate’s election is significantly affected by both central and county government’s performance. However, neither central nor local government performance has significant effect on voter choice in township magistrates’ election. This finding may reflect the fact that bottom-level local elections relies more on social networks and local factions than on government policy evaluation.