The developmental state and its discontent: the evolution of the open government data policy in Taiwan

Since the late 1980s, emerging political and economic forces challenged the effectiveness of so-called 'developmental states'. While some argue that the development state is dead, others proclaim its persistence to this day. To explore the persistence and changes of developmental states, I use Taiwan's open government data (OGD) policy as an analytical case. OGD was initially promulgated as primarily an economic policy, but it became a policy that also emphasised good governance. The evolution suggests that the developmental state in Taiwan has both persisted and been transformed. The persistence can be seen in the continuous influence of competent economic bureaucracies, ad hoc ties between state and capital, and the commitment to state-led economic development. On the other hand, the state has also changed, as non-economy-centred agencies have gained substantial power, the strength of civil society vis-a-vis the government has grown significantly, the bureaucracy has been increasingly incorporated into the 'world polity' and the logic of democracy has begun to be seen as supplementary to economic development. My theorisation rejects the wholesale endorsement or abandonment of the concept of 'developmental state' and treats the state as an entity that has 'many hands' and different types of 'path dependence'.