A Study of Legislative Initiatives and Cosponsorships in Taiwanese Legislature: 2008-2012

本研究所關心的焦點是立法院內的提案參與及連署參與現象。在過去幾年，台灣有關立法行為方面的研究，已經累積了相當豐富的成果。但是，解釋立法委員為何參與提案及連署的研究卻仍然乏人問津。因此，本研究的主要目的以嘗試發展一套能夠解釋立法委員參與提案及連署的理論為出發點。但是，由於台灣目前有關連署相關的理論的缺乏，本研究經由三個步驟，逐漸建構屬於台灣的提案連署理論。第一，透過文獻檢閱了解美國相關連署理論的發展，及其理論模型的建構基礎。第二，討論台灣現行的選舉制度、立法制度以及立法運作模式，並且參考美國的連署理論，發展出一套適用於台灣的理論模型。第三，在研究假設形成之後，筆者根據理論意涵，在經驗上尋求可操作化的變數，並透過統計分析確認變數之間的關連性是否符合理論預期。 本研究以立場表態模型及立法網絡模型來建構研究假設，並且分別選擇政黨競爭型法案、環境保護型法案、特殊利益型法案、社會福利型法案等四種不同類型的法案來檢證理論的解釋力。根據經驗分析的結果，代表立場表態模型的變數：執政黨立委、資深程度、勝選幅度皆有一定的解釋力。另外，代表立法網絡模型的變數：與首提案人相同政黨、與首提案人相同委員會等變數，以政黨網絡的解釋力較佳，而委員會網絡的解釋力則在環境保護型法案及社會福利型法案上有較好的效果。This thesis mainly pays attention to the phenomenon of legislative initiatives and cosponsorships in Taiwanese Legislative Yuan. In the past several years, there have been so many studies dedicated in answering the critical questions inside the Legislative Yuan. However, none of those studies take initiatives participation and cosponsorships into account. In term of filling the gap of this main topic, this thesis is aimed to establish a theory to explain the causes and the consequences of initiatives participation and cosponsorships in Legislative Yuan. Despite of lacking any theoretical foundation in Taiwan, I take the relevant studies in the U.S. into granted, integrated real political context and related legislative studies in Taiwan to build the hypotheses. After the hypotheses are successfully being built, I would search for the variables that are empirical operative to test the hypotheses. I harness two theoretical models to explain initiatives participation and cosponsorships, which are position taking model and legislative network model. Besides, I select four types of bill, partisan bill, environmental protection bill, special interest bill, and social welfare bill to observe the validity of the hypotheses. As the result, majority, seniority, electoral margin, which are the proxy variables of position taking model perform adequate among all selected bill. On the other hand, party network is also a good predictor of legislative initiatives participation and cosponsorships, but committee network is only effective in special interest bill and social welfare bill