A Reachable Governance to Fight COVID-19: Democracy and the Legacy of Embedded Autonomy in Taiwan

Different country showed different governing capacity to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. With reference to the classical concept of embedded autonomy, as used in developmental state of political theory, this paper aims to study the capacity and progression of democratic country, Taiwan, in its fight with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and how democratic state, civil society and bureaucrats have affected the response and measures. Taiwan’s case provides a valuable empirical contribution to the understanding of the long term effect of embedded autonomy in a democratic country. This study argues that democracy does matter to fight Covid-19 pandemic, moreover, the legacy of embedded autonomy can be expanded beyond economic development, and successfully used to explain Taiwan’s capacity to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in its early stage. Key observations and discussion addressed in this study includes, first, the extent to which the concept of embedded autonomy is applicable in evaluating and in shaping Taiwan’s efforts to manage the pandemic; second, the extent to which the political system is better at managing COVID-19 crisis by comparing democratic Taiwan and authoritarian China. A central finding of this paper is that, democracy has proven it has the edge in coping with COVID-19 pandemic practically. Theoretically, Taiwan’s case demonstrates a valuable and supplementary example to Evans and Heller (2018) on their broadening view of embedded autonomy. The legacy of the developmental state is applicable to explain Taiwan’s immediate and effective response to the COVID-19 outbreak. A reachable governance to fight COVID-19 lies in ‘the nature of democracy’ and ‘the legacy of embedded autonomy’.

The Adaptive (Developmental) State

Is the developmental state dead, superseded by the liberal or competition state, a servant of markets, or has it evolved to fit changing geopolitical, economic, and technological circumstances? In affirming the latter, we first consider the national level, then extend our scope to consider decentralization, local developmentalism, and multilevel governance. Relatedly, we examine ‘smart cities’ (or ‘fast cities’) in China and India, which embody many of the processes and tensions of compressed development. Finally, we return to the notion of ‘embedded autonomy’ in state–civil society relations. Compression heightens two paradoxes of the developmental state and raises the importance of the state interacting with a wider range of civil society actors, in addition to business, to address its simultaneous challenges.

13. Executives, Bureaucracies, Policy Studies, and Governance

This chapter explores the relations between the executive and legislative branches of government, along with their role in formulating government policy. It first describes the general framework of legislature–executive relations before discussing the civil service and its embedded autonomy. It then examines theories of bureaucratic policy-making, with particular emphasis on the problem of facilitating policy innovation, as well as the more recent proliferation of government agencies and the concepts of governance and good governance. It also considers the spread of the domain of policy-making beyond state officials or civil servants to issue networks and policy communities and concludes by analysing the emergence of a ‘network state’ and its implications for civil servants.

The aspiring developmental state and business associations in Ethiopia – (dis-)embedded autonomy?

This article investigates how the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front's (EPRDF) attempt to build a developmental state influenced and shaped its relationships with the Ethiopian private sector. Through a case study of the chambers of commerce system in Ethiopia, the research reveals that the EPRDF's relationship to the private sector was characterised by the twin objectives of (1) curbing the private sector's power to prevent challenges to the EPRDF rule and (2) mobilising the private sector as part of the ruling coalition's developmental state programme. However, these twin objectives, were, in several cases, perceived as mutually exclusive by the EPRDF which, at times, led to a focus on control at the expense of developmental objectives. The ensuing lack of embeddedness posed problems for the operationalisation of the developmental state policies, reducing the EPRDF's ability to institutionalise collaborative relationships with the private sector.

Conclusion

What is it that makes the Election Commission of India (ECI) a trusted institution, which performs its functions more effectively than other institutions of the state? Notions of India as a ‘flailing state’ point at the dissonance between the strength of higher bureaucracy in drafting policy and its weakness in implementing them. Others have talked of ‘embedded autonomy’ to puzzle over the bureaucratic state apparatus in India, which is not embedded enough to have strong networks in civil society and the dominant classes. The ECI can be seen, however, as an example of a centralised bureaucratic apparatus which has sustained itself as an institution where the head is as robust as its limbs in the states and districts. The robustness of the ECI and its ability to renew itself, despite flaws in its design, and the influence of the political field, has largely emerged from its ability to enhance its constitutional powers. The ECI’s powers of self-regulation and its tendency to consolidate and enhance its powers have contributed to making the ECI a relatively autonomous institution, with a distinctive identity deriving from the democratic logic of the state.

Science granting councils in Sub-Saharan Africa: Trends and tensions

This article documents recent trends in science funding support in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We analyse these trends at the SSA regional level alongside a summary of four case studies of science funding in four Science Granting Councils (SGCs) in East Africa. Our findings support the literature on science funding in SSA regarding low levels of funding, cross-country engagement, and the need for capacity building. However, we also find there are tensions among funding and policy actors around the perceived ways in which investment in science will benefit society. We argue that the narratives and logics of science funders and their roots in ‘Republic of Science’ vs. ‘Embedded Autonomy’ rationales for SGC activity must be more transparent to enable critical engagement with the ideas being used to justify spending.