Challenging the Governance Structure: A Political Investigation of Foreign Labor Policy-Making in Taiwan

The development of political and economic policies has driven the structure of industry to produce enormous transformations of the political structure in Taiwan. This paper concentrates on foreign policy areas, to demonstrate the long-term dominant influence of structural and institutional constraints upon the state in Taiwan. The analysis concentrates on discussing the interactive structure of the reciprocal penetration between the state and pressure groups, using secondary public and private documents. The investigation shows that the state did not become powerless from the challenges of pressure groups and globalization, but simply generated strategic selectivity and coordination. The investigation of macro from secondary data afford an insight into the different factors involved in shifting the political structure of Taiwan. In addition, we find that the empowering pressure groups also had some resources that the party-state needed. By virtue of spatial interactions, key actors in the governance structure were able to restructuralize the political structure from the earlier Authoritarian regime to the present system of State-corporatism.