The following paper examines the case of strategic petroleum reserves (SPR) and, more specifically, the case of Canada’s decision to forego an SPR, which goes against the norm of International Energy Agency (IEA) members, but more specifically goes against the choices of the other net-export IEA countries. The first section of this paper will outline the puzzle as to why Canada is going...
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Volume #15, Number #1
Volume #15, Number #1
This study explores the nature of community forestry and provides a discussion of its development in Taiwan that was initiated in 2002 with a view to including a cooperative approach to forest resources management with local communities. By the end of 2008, the Forestry Bureau had sponsored more than 1,000 community forestry projects, which promoted the public image of the Bureau. However, it...
Volume #15, Number #1
Responsiveness is one of the ideal propositions of democracy. Regarding Taiwan’s political studies, scholars have long concentrated on democratization, the unification-independence issue, national identity, and cross-Strait relations. Only a few have paid attention to the relationship between public opinion and policy output. This article evaluates the responsiveness of Taiwan’s local...
Volume #15, Number #1
In the process of Taiwan’s democratization, scholars assert that ethnic identity, national identity, and party identity are closely linked with each other. In this paper, in addition to carefully examining the relationships among the three identities from the historical, political and sociological perspectives, we provide our hypotheses after investigating the political competition among...
Volume #14, Number #2
For the government, indicator measurements are a major means of demonstrating the legitimacy of policy. To provide a reason as to why a policy continues to exist, the government must utilize the indicator to justify its actions in carrying out its policy. Although indicator measurements are sophisticated, they may provide policy-makers with means to keep on monitoring and modifying their...
Volume #14, Number #2
Regional conflicts, civil wars and ethnic antagonisms in the 1990s induced many instances of humanitarian crises. Massacres and ethnic cleansings seriously violated human rights and brought about reproachable humanitarian miseries and losses of thousands of lives. The legitimacy of humanitarian intervention has attracted much attention among international theorists, lawyers and philosophers....
Volume #14, Number #2
This article intends to provide a selected but cogent depiction of how theories of contemporary hermeneutics have influenced research in political philosophy based on a critical scrutiny of Richard Rorty’s hermeneutic theory and a discussion of the new-developing “interpretive political philosophy,” put forth by another American philosopher Georgia Warnke. Two important concepts, “Conversation...
Volume #14, Number #2
This paper seeks to examine why some countries have abolished the death penalty while others choose to keep it, given their popular opinions overwhelmingly favoring this tool to pursue justice. Taking Taiwan and Singapore as cases, this study demonstrates different approaches toward this controversial issue. In contrast to Singapore’s self-confidence on exercising its sovereignty, Taiwan has...
Volume #14, Number #2
Campaign expenditure has been the most direct and efficient resource for candidates, since it provides the medium for the voters to know the candidates and their policy platforms. The previous literature also shows that the election result is profoundly influenced by the campaign spending. Unfortunately, there have been few related empirical studies in Taiwan prior to the passage of the...
Volume #14, Number #1
In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court’s treatment of commercial speech has undergone transformations, from total non-protection under the First Amendment to less protection or even to qualified protection. However, why is commercial speech entitled to only less protection? The
transformations indicate that commercial speech may not be less valuable than political speech according to...