| Abstract: | Taiwan has been moving toward democracy, with a dramatic transition taking place in the past decade. Critical to this transition
is a restructuring of the relationship between the state bureaucracy and society. This study focuses on democratization's
effect on Taiwan's bureaucracy. In particular, it seeks to examine such aspects of bureaucratic transformation as bureaucratic
decisionmaking, legislative-bureaucratic politics, interest group-bureaucratic relations, the expansion of local autonomy,
and civil service reform. This study finds that the bureaucratic state is facing a great challenge from political, legislative,
and societal forces. The old type of insulated bureaucratic planning and decision making is no longer possible, the bureaucracy
is losing its KMT patrons, and bureaucrats are finding themselves answerable to political pressure, legislative oversight,
and interest group lobbying. While the bureaucracy has lost its previous level of discretion in terms of macro-management
and the formulation of developmental policies, the bureaucratic state has not withered away.
Qingshan Tan is Associate Professor of Chinese and East Asian politics and Director of the International Relations Program
in the Department of Political Science at Cleveland State University. His recent publications are on issues of democratization
in Taiwan and China. |
