The performance of state-owned enterprises in taiwan

This study reviewed the performance of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Taiwan. Focusing on the relationship between SOEs and national economic activities and private enterprises, the study revealed some mixed findings regarding the SOEs’ performance. On the one hand, Taiwan's SOEs have contributed to the state's management of economic activities, including assisting in the continuous economic growth, in the transformation and upgrading of the economic structure, and in the stabilization of the economy during the hard economic times. On the other hand, Taiwan's SOEs are found to be less efficient and less profitable than the similar private enterprises. The Taiwan experience, both positive and negative, provides information to SOEs’ researchers and practitioners to understand the overall phenomenon of SOEs and to consider the future development of them.     

The Institutional Settings for the Development of Public Services through State-Owned Enterprises in Brazil

The findings of this study make a timely contribution to the development of public services. Based on the institutional analysis and development (IAD) framework, this study analyzes under which institutional settings state-owned enterprises (SOEs) can be social and financial options for public service provision in Brazil. Applying a multi-case research design, this study’s findings show that SOEs can be a suitable option for Brazilian social and financial development when: markets are weak or noncompetitive; if few decisional players act; if political interference is minimized regarding operational decisions; and if corporate control is effective to avoid mismanagement and corruption. Brazilian SOEs are effective economic and social tools, but they need to peroxide value improve their corporate control (in the case of Petrobras) and strategic centralization decisions (in the case of Eletrobrás) .     

Political entrepreneurship and the Ko-P phenomenon in Taiwan’s democratization*

Taiwan’s economic modernization and political democratization after World War II have been praised as good examples for emerging countries. As of 2014, Taiwan has successfully gone through four direct presidential elections and two rounds of peaceful transfer of power. However, continuing sectarian quarrels between the ruling Kuomintang and the opposition Democratic Progressive Party cast doubt on the suitability of democracy for a Confucian society. This pessimism is challenged by the emergence of a new political star. A political novice, Ko Wen-je (aka Ko-P), won a landslide victory in the 2014 Taipei mayoral election, which is seen as a phenomenon. It has significant political implications and has so far inspired changes in the political landscape. The adoption of entrepreneurial strategies, such as identifying problems, leading by example, and team creation, are unprecedented in Taiwan’s political campaign. The Ko-P phenomenon demonstrates a self-correcting mechanism in Taiwan’s political system and bodes well for the future of new democracies, particularly for the Greater China Region.     

Political Business Cycle in Taiwan—Evidence from Central Government Expenditures

The political business cycle (PBC) refers to the phenomenon of an incumbent utilizing fiscal or monetary policies to create an economic boom before an election so that periodic fluctuations are induced according to election calendars. This article uses panel data from 1992 to 2010 to examine the effect of presidential elections on central government departmental expenditure in Taiwan. The results suggest an opportunistic PBC in Taiwan after the first Taiwanese presidential direct election in 1996. Furthermore, Taiwan’s government expenditure cycles have been significantly stronger in the years of the “new democracy.”     

从“太阳花学运”看台湾民主

台湾自视为民主化的“灯塔”，但“太阳花学运”暴露出台湾民主存在诸多问题，引发广泛争议。争议中的共识是台湾民主出了问题，但也存在分歧，即究竟该对近三十年来的台湾民主化持什么态度，肯定、否定，抑或其他？分歧的产生与民主质量理论运用到台湾民主研究有关，民主质量的概念特性导致不同学者对其内涵的理解有所不同。有将其理解为狭义的“民主”的质量，包括竞争性选举、政党轮替等；也有将其理解为中义的“民主政治”的质量，包括法治、宪政、分权、人权等其他政治范畴；还有将其理解为广义的“民主政体”的质量，包括政治绩效、经济绩效、社会绩效等政治、经济和社会范畴。通过民主质量理论可知，台湾基本实现了巩固的民主，但尚未实现优质的民主。     

The Chinese Political Opposition in Exile: A Chequered Development

Deploying the perspectives of diaspora politics and transnational social movements, this article analyses the impact of the key factors conditioning the overall environment in which the overseas Chinese democracy movement (OCDM) has operated since the 1989 Tiananmen event in Beijing (where weeks of mass protest rallies by students, intellectuals, workers, and citizens led to a violent crackdown by the People’s Liberation Army on the demonstrators on 4 June). China’s phenomenal rise as a global power, its transformed relations with the West and diaspora communities, and its toughening control over political dissent inside and outside the country have created an increasingly arduous and complex mobilising terrain for the dissidents in exile. Meanwhile, Taiwan’s democratisation, political nativisation, and China-focused economic exchanges have minimised Taipei’s role as the mainland exiles’ traditional backer. Finally, the shifting norms, demographics, and practices of the overseas Chinese diasporas have further compounded these challenges.     

台湾地方基层行政管理体制变迁及影响分析

传统西方分权理论中的“奥茨定理”认为，权力向基层政府下放，有助于改善公共服务。然而在台湾都市化进程中，2010年台湾部分县市合并升格为直辖市，以此同时，原有的乡镇政府改为从属于市（直辖市）的区，基层政府的权力出现向县市一级政府集中的现象。在对台湾基层政府体制沿革历史梳理基础上，作者通过实地调研，对这一基层行政体制调整的动因、特点、内容及影响进行了分析。本研究发现，台湾都市化进程中，基层政府权力向上集中有利于提升行政效率和公共服务规模效益的需求，得到广泛社会认同，但同时，也导致国民党对基层的控制有所减弱，对台湾的政治生态具有深远影响。     

Political structures and financial liberalization in pre-crisis East Asia

East Asian economies differed dramatically in their vulnerability to the financial shocks of 1997–98. In the current literature on the Asian crisis, one key factor commonly adduced to explain the uneven crises is different national approaches to liberalizing the financial market. While extant analyses have yielded important insights into the correlation between divergent liberalization patterns and uneven crises, they have failed to deal with the crucial question of why East Asian economies diverged in their respective paths to financial market liberalization. To account for differences in liberalization approaches, this article develops an institutional explanation of financial policy choices. It posits that variations in liberalization patterns stem from fundamental differences in the organizational structures of the private sector, the bureaucracy, and the party system that shape the economic interests and political behavior of social groups and state agencies in the policy-making process. In making this argument, the article focuses on Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand, the four major East Asian economies that pursued different liberalization strategies during the 1980s and 1990s and had contrasting performance in the recent financial crisis. It argues that cross-national differences in the above-mentioned domestic political structures within the four economies are the primary sources of their divergent liberalization approaches and outcomes, which, in turn, impacted financial stability to differing degrees and generated varying abilities to withstand external shocks. The author thanks Benjamin Cohen, Stephan Haggard, Otto Holman, Geoffrey Underhill, and anonymous SCID reviewers for their helpul comments on earlier drafts. Generous financial support from the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research and the Netherlands Fellowship Program is gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimers apply. Xiaoke Zhang is research fellow in the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research and the Department of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. He is the author ofThe Changing Politics of Finance in Korea and Thailand (Routledge, 2002) and the co-editor ofInternational Financial Governance under Stress (Cambridge University Press 2003).     

Child Schooling,Child Health,and Rainfall Shocks: Evidence from Rural Vietnam

Abstract

We study the effect of rainfall shocks on child schooling outcomes and on standardised height for age (a measure of child health) in rural Vietnam. We find that adverse rainfall shocks during pregnancy adversely affect children’s school entry delay and progress through school. Adverse rainfall shocks in the third year of life adversely affect both schooling and child health. These effects differ by region, as a result of constraints that reflect regional economic heterogeneity. We predict that policies that help rural families smooth income shocks will result in increases in human capital and in substantial cumulative returns over a worker’s working life.     

From nuclear imperialism to petro-democracy? Resource assemblages and the emergence of a new political configuration in Niger

The rentier state and resource curse concepts understand oil and uranium as fixed resources generating economic rents. In doing so, these theories largely ignore the social, economic, political and technological arrangements essential for a material substance like oil or uranium to become a resource. By comparing the diachronic and synchronic entanglements of the different socio-technical arrangements of oil and uranium in Niger, the assumption of the resource curse and rentier state theories, that resource revenues foster authoritarian tendencies, is revisited. Exploring the concept of resource assemblages, this article analyzes how political configurations are related to the process of resource exploitation. This perspective reveals that a new resource-political configuration in Niger has emerged since the beginning of oil production. Whereas Niger’s uranium-political configuration has long been characterized by a neocolonial discursive formation, the emerging petro-political configuration has produced a new resource nationalism in public opinion and governance which is transforming politics in Niger.     

美国对台湾“政治安排”的政策及影响

美国对台湾“政治安排”的政策对“合情合理安排两岸政治关系”有重要影响。美国对台湾政治定位的政策是“认知到台湾是中国的一部分”，不支持“台独”或“两个中国”，但同时又“对台湾地位不持立场”。在两岸关系的解决方式方面，美国对台湾的前途持开放立场，但认为应透过对话和平解决，且要尊重两岸民众的意愿。美国这一政策增加了对统一前两岸政治关系做出“合情合理安排”的难度，但在某些方面与大陆对台政策也有一致性。目前，两岸应充分利用这些相契合的政策，推进两岸政治关系做出“合情合理”安排。     

Contextual Effects on Individual Voting Behavior: The Case of Taiwan

This study investigates the voting behavior of the Taiwanese electorate in two different levels of election by taking into account two aggregate-level effects, namely the political and economic contextual effects. Using both individual-level and aggregate-level data to study the 2008 legislative election and the 2012 presidential election in Taiwan, this paper not only confirms that the valence politics explanation outperforms other individual-level voting models in the legislative election and in other elections in Taiwan, but also demonstrates how the two contextual effects influence individual voting behavior. Specifically, the political contextual effect had influence on the individual electoral choice in both the 2008 legislative election and the 2012 presidential election, whereas economic contexts only affect voters’ decision when choosing a president. The multilevel analysis reveals that different individual-level voting models could provide partial explanation for voting behavior; however, the findings also show that we may overlook how contextual effects may affect the electoral choice.     

Aid as an encounter at the interface: the complexity of the global fight against poverty

International development discourse has recently shifted its focus from top‐down economic adjustment to participative anti‐poverty policy. This shift hints at an acknowledgement of the local complexities within the poverty process and at a need to listen to and develop actions with the ‘poor’. But, whereas the mainstream argument remains couched in a technical framework, we argue that the fight against poverty is inevitably political. Conceptualising the aid industry as a set of global–local interfaces, it follows that a closer look at ‘participation’ in anti‐poverty interventions is needed to come to grips with the political issues involved. Four issues are discussed: the complexity of local ‘participation’, given the ‘polycephalous’ character of third world societies; the power biases in the aid chain; the potential problem of ‘false consciousness’; and the ambiguities of the role of local development brokers. We conclude that anti‐poverty policy is in need of ‘interface experts’, who, through ‘provocation’ can beget ‘participation’.     

Pastoralists under Pressure: Double Exposure to Economic and Environmental Change in Niger

Interdisciplinary science benefits from frameworks that bridge different perspectives and methodological approaches in order to understand and solve complex problems. This article applies the double exposure framework to analyse how economic and environmental change drives recent political instability and food crises in Niger and the resultant implications for the food security of pastoral populations. Findings illustrate how processes of global change are undermining the historic resilience of pastoral communities within the region. Community and regional responses to new and unfamiliar conditions have resulted in heighted political instability that limits pastoralists’ ability to cope with future shocks.     

The adaptation of Taiwan's administrative organizations to its economic development

Since moving its seat to Taiwan in 1949, the government of the Republic of China has been able to resume its efforts towards national reconstruction on this island at an accelerated speed. Because of rapid political, economic, and social developments in recent decades, Taiwan's political environment is quite different from what it was previously. In changing from continental to island, national to local, and agricultural to industrial, the public's demands have changed significantly. Under Taiwan's current political and economic situation, what course of development should Taiwan's administrative organizations follow? What kind of self- adaptation to this changing environment should Taiwan's administrative system take? This article describes Taiwan's current administrative environment and operation from a physical and cultural setting. Its ways of adaptation are examined as well must be reasonable and rational. Restated, measures to change the quality of governmental services, governmental expense, the taxes the citizens pay, and the services citizens receive should be taken rationally (¹).     

Institutional resilience of Taiwan’s semi-presidential system: the integration of the president and premier under party politics

Over the past three decades, the semi-presidentialism has been adopted in most new democracies. It is also the constitutional order in most democracies, which can be divided into three categories: established, post-Leninist, and postcolonial democracies. Semi-presidentialism is a political system with dual executive branches. Moreover, because of these dual executive branches, the constitutional order of semi-presidentialism might be similar to a presidential system if the president is the de facto head of government. It might also be similar to a parliamentary system if the prime minister is the de facto head of government with the support of the parliamentary majority. Taiwan has been considered as a semi-presidential country since 1997. According to Taiwan’s constitutional amendments, its president is directly elected, and the premier (prime minister) and cabinet are responsible to the legislature. Dual executive system in Taiwan has been effective and flexible. I attempt to examine the institutional resilience of Taiwan’s constitutional function, which means that, in properly responding to social movements, its government has continued to function well. In addition, the president has been able to continue serving in office in spite of political crises. A vague constitutional design and a presidentialized party system are two reasons for this.     

Social changes under the impacts of economic transformation in Taiwan: From industrialization to modernization during the post-world war II era

This article examines the process of change in Taiwan during the past forty years under rapid industrialization and economic growth. Distinctions among the three concepts of industrialization, economic growth, and modernization are outlined. Changes in Taiwan’s economy, demography, class structure, health care, education, welfare system, and political participation are discussed. Based on Taiwan’s experience, a model of interlocking relationships between macro and micro levels of change is presented.     

Oil abundance and violent political conflict: A critical assessment

This paper addresses one of the empirical claims of the ‘resource curse’ argument, namely that oil abundance raises the probability of political violence. I argue that the two main theoretical premises of the oil-civil-war link, rent-seeking and the rentier state model, fail to provide a convincing argument as to why oil economies are more vulnerable to the onset of civil war. I find that three often-mentioned mechanisms as to why oil economies succumb to political violence not convincing; that oil economies are poor economic performers; that oil economies generate high corruption; and that oil economies tend to produce authoritarian regimes. I also examine the empirical evidence on the oil-civil-war link and conclude that the results are not robust. I conclude with some policy implications.     

Steering and Monitoring Model of State-Owned Enterprises

The aim of this study is to systematize the heterogeneous field of stated-owned enterprises (SOEs) especially for steering and monitoring purposes. Based on the existent literature and the heterogeneous field of the Finnish state’s share portfolio, we create a model for steering and monitoring purposes. In our model, the SOEs are grouped into categories according to how much the state as an owner is concerned with the social service assignment principle, strategic interests, or purely shareholder value interests. Consistency in the basis, extent, and listing status of SOEs for steering and reporting creates good preconditions for ownership policy decision-making and ultimately improves the outcomes of ownership policy and steering.     

Sources of social support for China’s current political order: The “thick embeddedness” of private capital holders

In recent years, scholars have puzzled over the fact that China’s increased economic privatization and marketization since the early 1990s have not triggered a simultaneous advance in political liberalization. Many have sought to explain why – despite a marked upsurge in popular unrest – sources of social support for the political order have remained sizeable. Seeking to shed light on this debate, this article investigates the nature and implications of the political embeddedness of China’s private capital holders. The embeddedness of these individuals is “thick” in the sense that it encompasses an intertwined amalgam of instrumental ties and affective links to the agents and institutions of the party-state. Thick embeddedness therefore incorporates personal links that bind private capital holders to the party-state through connections that are layered with reciprocal affective components. Such close relations work against the potential interest that private capital holders might have in leading or joining efforts to press for fundamental political liberalization. Drawing on these findings, the article places China’s economic and political development in comparative perspective, and lays out the most likely scenarios for China’s future.