“Autonomy Enhancing” and “Preference Divergence”: Analysis of Taiwan’s Cross-Strait Policy in the Period of Ma, Ying-Jeou’s Government by State-Centrism (2008.5~2016.1)
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Shu, Mu
Abstract
How to evaluate the Cross-Strait policy of Ma, Ying-jeou’s government in recent eight years? It is the realistic background of this thesis. How does government behavior influence public opinion in the process of public policy, and in turn, how does public opinion influence the government’s existing policy process? It is the theoretical background of this thesis. Questions above have led me to depart form the theoretical context of State Autonomy to the review of relevant academic concepts and theories including State Capacity, State and Social Preference, Eric Nordlinger’s theory on the Autonomy of Democratic State, Micheal Mann’s theory of State Power. Next, in the consideration of the existing research of the Cross-Strait relations and recent comments and analyses of Ma, Ying-jeou government’s Cross-Strait policy by Social-Centrism, the thesis explored the role of state capacity in the process that state adjusts divergent social preference when state makes attempt to maintain or enhance its autonomy. Then I proposed the research hypotheses and framework of this thesis: When there is some divergence between the state and social preferences towards a given policy or a given public issue, state’s autonomous behaviors by its capacity make impacts on the degree of the divergence between the state preference and social preference. Referring to state capacity, the Despotic Capacity has high degree of social isolation and low degree of social penetration, while the Infrastructural Capacity has high degree of social penetration and low degree of social isolation. Since the year of 2008, some of autonomous attempt of Ma’s Government succeeded and once successfully adjusted some divergent social preference, when Ma’s Government tended to adopt the infrastructural capacity to maintain or enhance its autonomy in the process of the Cross-Strait policy. While other autonomous attempt failed and expanded the preference divergence, when Ma’s Government tended to adopt the despotic capacity to maintain or enhance its autonomy in the process of the Cross-Strait policy. Through historical research approach, the thesis looked back on fifteen typical historic event of the Cross-Strait relations in eight years of Ma’s Government in power. The thesis reviewed and analyzed these events by three views. The first is dimensions of the internal or external state autonomy that Ma’s Government maintained or enhanced. The second is categories of the state capacity that Ma’s Government adopted, and the third is the degree of divergence between the state and social preferences towards the Cross-Strait policy of Ma’s Government. Finally the research hypotheses are verified. Meanwhile, the thesis also discovered that, because of the particularity of the Cross-Strait relations, forced by the dual pressure of the “quasi-embeddedness” from Beijing’s Taiwan policy and the transformation of Taiwan’s political and economic systems, the state capacity, specially in infrastructural capacity of Ma’s Government in the field of the Cross-Strait policy, is weakened. Thus Ma’s Government tended to adopt the despotic capacity to promote some Cross-Strait policy with preference divergence in order to maintain or enhance its autonomy. Then the degree of state-society preference divergence was gradually expanded, proliferated, intensified and out of control by the Sunflower Movement, and led to the social sanction in the end. Combined with the findings of empirical study, the thesis reconstructed the theory on the Autonomy of Democratic State by the theory of State Capacity. The thesis contends that despotic capacity and infrastructural capacity are important standards to measure the degree of social penetration and isolation of state capacity. As the degree of social penetration or isolation of state capacity changes, the degree of the divergence between state preference and social preference changes. The thesis proposes the “New Mode One of the Autonomy of Democratic State” to describe the process that how state capacity influence the preference divergence. Moreover, the strength or weakness of despotic capacity and infrastructural capacity is the important standard to categorize regimes of modern states. In the light of the strength or weakness of despotic capacity and infrastructural capacity, there are eight different categories in democratic and authoritarian regimes. Among four categories of democratic regimes, the “New Mode Two of the Autonomy of Democratic State” describes the relations between the proportion that anti-governmental social actors possess and the probability of the attempt and success of state autonomous behavior. According to positive and negative experience during the research process of the thesis, I concluded six pieces of significance and five pieces of shortcomings, and proposed three pieces of research advice in the future on the basis of above significance and shortcomings. At last, as the policy advice, the thesis generalized the attitude of Taiwan’s public opinion towards the Cross-Strait relations in one sentence.
Subjects
State Autonomy
State Capacity
Preference Divergence
the Cross-Strait Policy
the Despotic Capacity
the Infrastructural Capacity
Type
thesis
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