Townsmen association and Local Election: An Analysis of New Taipei City.

同鄉會是以地緣關係作為凝聚群眾力量的地緣性組織。新北市是台灣地區中，重要的人口移入地區。截至2012年6月止，新北市境內以彰化縣、雲林縣、嘉義縣及台南市所成立的旅北同鄉會，人數最多且組織最為完整的四大旅北同鄉會。 本研究採質化研究法，以文獻分析、深度訪談與滾雪球抽樣為方法，輔以人際關係網絡與、恩庇—侍從主義研究之途徑，探討四大旅北同鄉會與新北市地方選舉的關係。 旅北同鄉會透過舉辦活動攏聚同鄉鄉親，聯絡同鄉情誼。其活動經費除了自籌款外，也可向新北市政府申請活動經費補助或商請地方民意代表捐助；競選時刻，旅北同鄉會透過人情能量與同鄉情份，編織著同鄉力量為主的人際網絡。以同鄉情份為依歸，採鍊狀模式，號召同鄉會會員及其親友投入新北市地方選舉，發揮動員之效用。“Townsmen association” (Tongxianghui) is the geopolitical organization for the cohesive strength of the people through their geopolitical relationships. New Taipei City, an important area of immigration from other counties in Taiwan, has had four main active townsmen associations from Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi, and Tainan in the participation of local elections. Through the qualitative research method, such as literature review, depth interviews and snowball sampling method, and approaches of interpersonal networks and patron-client theories, I analyze the relationships between local elections and townsmen associations. From this research, I have proved how townsmen associations maintain their fellow relationships through launching activities, which are funded either by applying grants from the New Taipei City Government, or getting public donations from the local representatives. During the election campaigns, townsmen associations not only interwoven the connection of townsmen’s social network, but also procure such human-power investment to enforce their social effectiveness through the chain-mode electoral mobilization