Policy as a Booster Shot? The Impact of Satisfaction with Pandemic Policies on Presidential Evaluations in Taiwan

How does satisfaction in COVID policies influence presidential evaluations? Taiwan’s initial handling of the pandemic garnered considerable international attention, with initial high public satisfaction. Little attention, however, falls on how this satisfaction influenced evaluations of Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, over time. With nine survey waves from 2020 to 2022, this analysis finds that satisfaction with COVID policies corresponded with both greater satisfaction with and trust in Tsai; however, the impact of this satisfaction was smaller than on traditional policy areas.