Don-Yun Chen

The Management of Citizen Participation in Taiwan: A Case Study of Taipei City Government's Citizen Complaints System

Abstract Citizen participation is one of the core values of democracy. Democratization means an increase in citizen participation in public affairs. However, the issue of democratization is rarely studied in the field of public administration. In this article, we use the Taipei City Government (TCG) Citizen Complaints System to illustrate some tensions relating to citizen participation in a newly democratizing country. We interviewed the TCG officials to piece together the puzzle of how the citizen complaints system works. Furthermore, we conducted a survey on how each channel and media is used by citizens to file their complaints. Then, we focused on the development of the Taipei City Mayors e‐mail box to see how the tension between participation and cost is handled by utilizing newly emerging information technology. We then evaluate these developments in terms of publicity, accessibility, and accountability suggested by Senevirante and Cracknell (Seneviratne, M.; Cracknell, S. Consumer complaints in public sector services. Public Admin. 1988, 66, 181–193). Accordingly, we propose suggestions for improvement from these three aspects for TCG and other governments as well to establish a citizen complaints system that substantiates democracy.

The Interplay Between Digital and Political Divides: The Case of e-Petitioning in Taiwan

Political scientists have long been aware of the problem of unequal participation in democratic politics, the phenomenon we can call “political divide.” The emergence of information and communication technologies over recent years has sparked a discussion on whether this long-standing political divide can now be resolved by “e-democracy.” This study aims to answer two questions: (i) Can e-democracy, specifically e-petitions, attract traditional nonparticipants to participate in public affairs? (ii) In the context of promoting e-petitions, can “digital divide” alleviate the problem of “political divide?” The data used in this study were collected from a national poll on citizen experience of and willingness to participate in the petitioning for referendum. The results indicate that those who recall participating in paper petitions tended to be older, less educated, and with stronger party identification. Also, our results reveal that these people who can be effectively mobilized by traditional social networks are mostly, in fact, the “digital have-nots.” Furthermore, regarding the potential participants in e-petitions, we find that those “digital haves,” who had not been mobilized in previous paper-based petition sessions, were more likely to participate in e-petitions if they are implemented in the future. The results demonstrate the existence of a possible negative correlation between the political and the digital divide. This suggests that e-democracy might be potentially beneficial to alleviate the long worried negative effects of the political divide in democratic polity.

Applying Self-Determination Theory to Understand Public Employee’s Motivation for a Public Service Career: An East Asian Case (Taiwan)

ABSTRACT The research on employee motivation for choosing a public service career has largely been grounded in the intrinsic-extrinsic dichotomy along with limited motives such as job security, instrumental reward, and public service motivation (PSM). Such an approach narrows the view of researchers, especially those in cultures where major reasons for choosing a public service career exceed these factors and the intrinsic-extrinsic dichotomy. By employing self-determination theory (SDT) to examine data collected in Taiwan, an East Asian cultural setting, a measurement instrument is developed that captures five major motivations for a public service career. A discussion of applying this survey instrument for future research follows.

Executive Entrepreneurship in National Departments

Leadership by senior public managers in national departments is increasingly called for in response to many policy challenges and limitations of appointee and political leadership. This study defines “executive entrepreneurship” as senior, career public managers furthering new policies and initiatives, with input from stakeholders and support from political appointees. Study results from a dyadic survey of executives reporting directly to (deputy) ministers show that executive entrepreneurship is significantly furthered by (a) executives’ commitment to public causes, (b) orientation of appointees to their obligations and agency roles, and (c) external accountability of department performance. Implications are discussed for future studies.