民眾的政治行為與態度一直以來都是政治科學最受矚目的議題之一，而本文嘗試以社會資本途徑來探討其對於此議題所造成的政治效果為何。本研究將使用次級資料分析法並利用「亞洲民主動態調查」之第三波問卷作為資料來源，嘗試回答以下的研究問題：(一)台灣當前社會資本高低狀況為何？(二)不同面向的人口特徵在政治支持與政治參與上所呈現的結果為何？(三)社會資本對於政治支持和政治參與的政治效果為何？ 經分析後，得到下列研究結果。首先，台灣當前社會資本的累積頗為豐富，無論是社會網絡密度、網絡連結程度或是社會信任皆是如此。其次，在人口特徵所造成的政治效果上，性別、教育程度、政黨認同等社會屬性對於政治支持或政治參與則有著顯著的關聯性，尤其是政黨認同因素，無論在民眾的行為面或態度面均扮演相當重要的角色。最後，關於社會資本的政治後果，研究發現社會資本確實會影響民眾的政治支持和政治參與。 另外，除了研究結果，本文有以下的研究建議與限制：(一)藉由「縱斷面研究」可以更明確地了解到社會資本累積狀況，以彌補「橫切面研究」的缺陷；(二)受限於資料庫，並非所有學者理論皆能全數納入討論；(三)本文僅以量化研究進行分析，但未來若能再加上質化方式，則更能呈現出數字背後的意涵；(四)台灣社會資本累積狀況若要改善，政府則是相當重要的關鍵因素；(五)本文主要焦點於社會資本的正面評價，如果能再加上負面看法，則更能明確地了解到社會資本在政治上的效果為何。 People’s political behavior and attitude have been one of most popular topics in the political science. This research attempts to explore the political consequences of social capital. By using the Asian Barometer Survey data, this research answers three questions as follows: (1) What is the current status of social capital in Taiwan? (2) What are the effects of demographic difference on political support and political participation? (3) What is the political effect of social capital on political support and political participation? The results show that: (1) The current accumulation of social capital is quite abundant in Taiwan. Social network density, social network connection and social trust are all well-developed in Taiwan society. (2) Citizen’s demographic characteristics, gender, education level, and party identification are significantly related with political support or political attitude. The Party identification particularly plays the most important role in both people’s political behavior and attitude. (3) Regarding the political consequences of social capital, this study reveals that social capital has effect on political support and political participation definitely. There are some suggestions and limitations of the study: (1) We shall further understand the distribution of social capital by the longitudinal data analysis, which makes up for the defects in the cross-sectional study. (2) Because of restricts of using secondary data, some related theories can’t be test in this research. (3) We can understand the meaning of statistics deeply if using qualitative research and quantitative research at the same time. (4) Government is an important key to developing social capital (5) An evaluation focusing on negative effects of social capital is necessary for a fully understating of this issue.
