ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to explore differences in views of democracy between the mass public and the elites in Taiwan. Examining the 2004 Taiwan Democracy Index data, we first describe how the mass public and elites evaluate Taiwan’s democracy and, more importantly, their democratic values. Furthermore, we intend to observe whether ordinary people and elites agree on certain aspects of Taiwan’s democracy. This comparison will not only allow us to understand where the mass public and elites agree concerning the principle of democracy-as well as why-but also to reveal where there are gaps between the mass public and elites. The findings of this study may shed some light on highly partisan Taiwanese politics and the rapidly declining sense of political trust among the mass public.
