Antagonism among the merging of the Greater Tainan Special Municipality
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Cheng, Chi-Wei
Abstract
In 2009, Executive Yuan accepted new establish applications of four special municipalities, which included Xinbei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung. This is a rather big boundary change in Taiwan’s local government history after KMT retreated from mainland China in 1949. The application of Tainan City, or the Greater Tainan Special Municipality, was accepted by its rich of culture and history. Since there is no special municipality contains such a huge area in Taiwan before, the Tainan City administration lacks of experience to manage difference triggered by laws and local political forces. This essay is about to cover the antagonism inside the administration, and also record events affecting common people among this merging process. The article will focus on four questions. How does the city government care all the needs of its thirty-seven towns or areas? How do the areas across old county-city boundary now get merged? How will the remote towns in eastern mountain areas get developed after they become parts of Tainan City? Is it true that the areas north of Tseng-Wen River being ignored after the merger? After interviews, we found that the antagonism between old-Tainan-county and old-Tainan-city is weakened since the second tern of Mayor Ching-Te Lai. College graduates still have some difficulty to find jobs in hometown, owing to the industrial structure not upgraded. The Local Government Systems Act limits local administrators’ duties, causing them prone to take a passive attitude handling local affairs. Administrative inertia poses hurdles in fount of local development. Deficits would make government choose to use lower budget to maintain infrastructure in remote areas. Seats of city councilor are cut during the merge, pumping budget more likely tilting to downtown areas. Some delegates note that administrative efficiency becomes slow caused by structure of bureaucracy. Many interviewees from private sectors don’t notice the efficiency difference before and after the merge. Most of the interviewees agree that the merger will benefit Tainan, making it more competitive in the long run. But there are still some major problems in administrative aspect left to be solved.
Subjects
Tainan
Special Municipality
county-city merger
reorganization
local self-governance
Type
thesis
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