Exploring Democratic Governance: The Experience of the Taipei City Commission on the Promotion of Women's Rights
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Lee, Wen-Ying
Abstract
The Taipei City Commission on the Promotion of Women''s Rights established on January 23, 1996, is the first women’s policy mechanism consist of both the government and the NGOs in Taiwan. This commission has been operating for over 15 years and serving under three different mayors.
No study has been conducted to systematically review the long-term performance of the Taipei City Commission on the Promotion of Women''s Rights. Since this gender policy machinery is significantly related to the women''s movement and democratization in Taiwan, this study explores the democratic governance of the commission. By analyzing interviews and data from commission meetings, and through three case studies, this study investigates the limitations and challenges faced by the commission.
The findings of this study are as follows: (1) The Taipei City Commission on the Promotion of Women''s Rights has experienced initialization, institutionalization, and routinization. Party change in the city government did not interrupt the institutionalization process. (2) Mayoral attendances to the commission’s general meetings have decreased. (3) The professionalism of this commission is appreciated, because of the gender sensitivity of its civic members. (4) The civic members of the commission are invited by the mayor and the diversity of the members has been considered. (5) Although bureaucratic responsiveness has improved, the potential to be perfunctory remains. Documents and records of the general meetings can usually be found on the Internet; however, officials still retain the power to remove the Website without consulting the commission. (6) The commission is severely criticized for lacking horizontal and vertical accountability.
Regarding the commission’s insufficient democratic governance, we make the following recommendations: (1) Because the political wills of the mayor and bureau heads are crucial for implementing gender equality policies, civic members should insist that the mayor and bureau heads attend general meetings. (2) Orientations for new commission members must be conducted to facilitate smooth transition. (3) Gender impact assessment and implementation effectiveness of policies should be traced by the commission to ensure policy responsiveness. (4) A bureaucratic unit fully dedicated to making and supervising the implementation of gender equality policies should be established. (5) Civic members of the commission should collaborate with the Taipei City councilors to accelerate the implementation of the gender equality policies. (6) An annual meeting for all women should be held to increase women’s political participation and representation, and to improve vertical accountability for gender equality policies.
Subjects
democratic governance
gender policy machinery
professionalism,
representativeness
bureaucratic responsiveness
accountability
Type
thesis
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