ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. It provides a summary of the existing literature on governance in general and more specifically on environmental governance in Taiwan. The chapter discusses the English and Chinese language literatures together as Taiwanese and foreign scholars, despite a different perspective on things, all read each other's works and utilize common theories, when analyzing the concept of governance. After reviewing the most important and informative approaches to the concept of governance, the chapter introduces concepts and theoretical issues that inform the author's own study of Taiwanese environmental governance and the analytical framework for this book. The chapter deals with the specific characteristics of Taiwan's environmental governance, by focusing on its bureaucratic structure and governments' capacity in the field of environmental protection. Taiwan's Environmental impact assessments (EIA) Act was formally enacted in 1994, modeled after the United States' own EIA Law.