Political Restructuring in The Process of Urban Mega-project: The Case of Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit
Date Issued
2006
Date
2006
Author(s)
Chang, I-Chun
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
The influence of state is remarkable for cities in, or once in, authoritarian states, but there is insufficient knowledge concerning the issue. Urban studies talk about urban policies and urban political operation, but seldom take the role of state seriously; political studies bring the role of state back into researches of policy, but scarcely apply the perspective to cross-scale, such as urban scale, studies. The experience of Taiwan, as well as those of many other developmental states, lay at the conjunction between paucities of both theoretical traditions.
This thesis looks into Kaohsiung, the second largest city in Taiwan, and targets at the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit System (KMRT), to explore the political operation of a mega-project. With this example of a city encountering development crisis and a state in transition to democracy, the thesis tries to enrich the comprehension of the question: how can political structure be restructured in the process of a mega-project? Discarding the dominant state-center perspective, this study looks down to the role of local government, from which the intricate political process of the project, regarding various agents and region difference, is pictured out. Therein the power structure and the rationale of relevant agents are summarized into three parts,
First comes the policy analysis. Initiated for urban traffic demands, KMRT later advanced to means of development, with which the city authorities claimed to carry out the transition against the crisis of globalization. This turn, including the BOT institution to which it adapted, was adorned by the government as signs of progress and a representation of its pluralism-governance. Nevertheless, empirical evidences showed that the causes of the turn didn’t accord with the official story; an alternative interpretation referring to concerns of legitimacy is suggested.
Secondly, according to the statements and acts on KMRT by state and city governments, dynamics of central-local governmental relationship in the transitional authoritarian state are analyzed. Further, the governance rationale on local policies of the central government, which concerns both the rank of a city and the status of its chief, is outlined. Accordingly, with a comparison analysis covering the period of party alternation in power at both central and local levels, it is suggested that, even if the transition to democracy was claimed complete in Taiwan, the old governance rationale of the authoritarian state may still function.
At last, narrowing down to urban scale, the city governance comes to analysis. After party alternation in power in Kaohsiung, a new urban regime, which includes the new mayor and some old local factions, was established, and its evolvement hinged around the implement of KMRT. This coalition, different from traditional ones that benefited from local property development and land-values, exploited state capital of the project through means of construction and engineering. But, it is found that while the government is new in the so-claimed democratic era, its governance patterns still resembles the old mode of clientalism during authoritarian ages.
Put together, this study reveals the old-wine-in-new-bottle features of current political operation in Taiwan and Kaohsiung: Even if KMRT seems a policy of a new era, it is not as progressive as it claimed to be. The relevant political operation still somehow corresponds to rationales or patterns in the old authoritarian state. This, of course, is not saying the new political operation is a duplication of the old; further research and discussion are still called for.
Subjects
都市政治變遷
都市大型計畫
恩庇侍從關係
地方政權
Urban politics
Urban mega-project
Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit system
Authoritarian state
Clientalism
Urban regime
SDGs
Type
thesis
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