Does candidate nomination in districts increase party votes of small parties? Evidence from the 2016 Taiwan legislative elections

This study addresses why small parties nominate candidates to run in the district elections and how nomination of district candidates could influence small parties\u27 share of party votes in Taiwan. Previous studies on party\u27s strategic entry in the mixed electoral system demonstrate the existence of \u27contamination effect\u27 in various Western democracies. While \u27contamination effect\u27 suggests that party would gain more proportional representation (PR) seats by increasing its number of candidate nomination in the single-member-district (SMD) races, we contend that small parties should also take the strength of nominated candidates into consideration. Nominating strong candidates in SMD competitions could generate positive \u27spillover effect\u27 to party\u27s PR tier. By focusing on the 2016 Taiwan legislative election, our findings suggest that first, small parties need to fulfill the institutional requirements in order to qualify for running in the party-list election; second, the \u27contamination effect\u27 exists in Taiwan, but it is conditional; and finally, candidates\u27 strength creates positive \u27spillover effect\u27 on party\u27s proportional seats