In the wake of the emergence of Social Constructivism, the development of International Relations theory has entered into a new phase. Researchers often address the subject in terms of the historical evolution of theories with reference to the Great Debates since Classical Realism-vs.-Idealism. As such, Social Constructivism, often regarded as a recent import from sociological perspectives, is...
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Volume #7, Number #1
Volume #7, Number #1
Abstract The civil service examination system in Taiwan differs significantly from those other developed nations. A centralized and independent Examination Yuan established by the constitution has indeed made a great contribution by establishing a generally open competition under an authoritarian regime and, most importantly, has prevented the emergence of a spoils or political patronage...
Volume #6, Number #1
This paper explores political change at the local level in Taiwan during the process of rapid democratization since the mid-1980’s. Three related questions are raised: what changes occurred in Taiwan’s local politics during this period; did these changes on the whole manifest a stable or a non-stable outcome? Finally, did all these changes point to a democratic direction?
This paper...
Volume #6, Number #1
This study, sponsored by the Social Science Research Center of the National Science Council, evaluates academic performance in terms of journal article publication of seven political science departments and two institutes of Academia Sinica during the period from 1995 to 2001. We find that, by total amount of publication, the Department of Political Science at National Taiwan University ranks...
Volume #6, Number #1
Local environmentalism has claimed that empowering environmental management to local governments would increase policy efficiency and political responsiveness. Echoing such arguments, Taiwan has developed an environmental governing system that carries similar democratic spirit by allowing local governments to have their own policy orientations and major control over their personnel....
Volume #6, Number #1
This essay seeks to explore how the issues and events reported by newspapers affect the image of candidates, and then how the image of candidates affects their popular supports in Taiwanese presidential election in the year 2000. The content analysis of issues and events are conducted to collect time-series aggregate data, and the linear regressions are applied to estimate the relations...
Volume #6, Number #1
This paper presents a number of provisional and incomplete ideas and reflections about the long-term forces that shaped the emergence, consolidation and eventual possible decline of the specific Western political institution of political parties. The text has a limited apparatus of bibliographical notes. I will be presenting three distinct macro-constellations of factors that roughly...
Volume #6, Number #1
This article aims to explain the failure of the DPP government’s anti-nuclear policy. We begin with an overview of the literature on social movements in order to locate the key factors affecting the outcome of collective action. Social mobilization, reform opportunity and political strategy turn out to be significant in this regard. In sum, the success of movement consists in a delicately...
Volume #5, Number #1
Democratization in Taiwan has demanded a more delicate governance system Traditionally isolated administrative body is now encountered pluralistic interference that usually politicizes the policy process essentially. Public administrators, rather than simply rule the public, are now required to design institutions to work with the public in offering public goods. In this paper, I argue that...
Volume #5, Number #1
Why do people need political identity, and what effect does individual learning have on forming her identity preference? Relatively little research has tried to answer these two questions. We address this issue by analyzing the relationship between individual's life cycle and identity preference change. In a formal model of Bayesian updating, we establish that the aging process and...