International Institute of Administrative Sciences
Abstract:
Government restructuring has been discussed extensively in Taiwan for more than
three decades, and the first NPM-style administrative reform programme, which
emphasizes ‘a leaner and businesslike government’, was launched in 1996. Since then,
NPM has been the key guideline producing a strong path-dependence effect for subse-
quent administrative reform programmes in Taiwan. This article examines the trajectory
of administrative reform in Taiwan from 1949 to 2010, the latter being the year when
the Organizational Act of the Executive Yuan was passed, which symbolically represents
the end of the current phase of administrative reform. Similar to many Asian countries,
exogenous and endogenous factors have induced efforts at administrative reform in
Taiwan. Although it is argued that it is difficult to generate any common path of admin-
istrative reform among Asian countries, the analysis of the case in Taiwan may provide
some observations for future discussions on this topic, such as evidence of political
manipulation, the transformation of the role of the state, the desire for an indigenous
reform strategy, and the demand to revitalize the civil service system.
Relation:
International Review of Adminstrative Science ,78(2),305-327
