ABSTRACT
This chapter sets the scene for the empirical case studies that follow. Taiwan’s state and society are introduced here in historical perspective. State is used here as one of the three types of governance actors and organizations identified in Chapter 2, not as an assessment of the legitimacy of Taiwan’s arguments in favour of international recognition. Society refers to the actors and organizations identified in the previous chapter as market and civil society organizations. The characteristics of the state, in many ways unique, are introduced first. The complex and diverse patterns of interaction between state and society in the context of Taiwan are then highlighted. In the last section the focus is on state-civil society interactions in external relations.
