自台灣政治學界一般認為台灣民眾心中少有左、右派的概念，只有統、獨與其延伸出來的族群分野概念，因此每當國內問卷題目詢問民眾信奉左派、抑或右派？或者特定政黨是偏左、還是偏右的時候？似乎出現許多無效問卷，然而這是一個大哉問？關於一般民眾心中意識形態是否紊亂？學界辯論已久，由康佛斯於1964 年發表的「黑白理論」所延續的論述，提及一般美國民眾不具意識形態思維，僅有政治菁英具有此思維。朗等人則認為精英與群眾對意識形態理解力差異不大，群眾也不是缺乏意識形態，只是思考議題的方式不同，基此，根據台灣政治生態與歷史淵源，有三個假設：第一、縱然台灣民眾對於左右派的概念可能不理解，但若給與黨性的提示配合理解，台灣民眾仍可能出現左右派一致的認知；第二、教育程度較高者相對能夠投票給與自己意識形態相近的立委候選人；第三、教育程度越高者，對於政治知識掌握程度越高。儘管本文假設教育程度高者，具有根據意識形態投票的能力，但這不必然代表這些高教育程度者確切了解左派或者右派的具體內涵？但能夠將政黨標籤與左右派當作「思考捷徑」，協助在政治事務上的認知一致。筆者依賴2001 年與2008 年｢台灣選舉與民主化調查｣（TEDS）問卷來檢證，統計的結果支持了以上假設，但也發現很多細緻的但書。 It is widely believed in academia that ordinary citizens in Taiwan do not have the capability of identifying left and right, and they are only aware of Taiwan's independence from or unification with China. Thus, whenever questionnaire is aimed to ask about left and right, Taiwanese normally tend to give meaningless response. Yet, this claim remains as a big question and requires more investigation of it. Converse's black and white theory presented in 1964 is that ordinary Americans do not have a basic understanding of ideology and only elite Americans do. Lane and his colleagues argue that there is no salient difference between ordinary Americans and elite Americans in the same regard. They tend to think that ordinary people tend to have different ways, though not as organized, of thinking about politics, but that does not mean these people lack the sense of ideology. Therefore, I present three hypotheses. First, even if people in Taiwan lack profound understanding of left and right, they do have a more reliable understanding of it when they are provided with the cue of party. Second, people who are more educated tend to have more capability of voting for legislative candidates who share similar ideologies with them. Third, higher education is associated with better knowledge levels. Even though I attempt to show that respondents have an enhanced capability of identifying ideology in certain conditions, it does not necessarily mean these people genuinely know the content of ideology. But party label can be used as information shortcut to help alleviate the disorientation of ideology in Taiwan. I count on TEDS datasets in 2001 and 2008 and examine my hypotheses.
