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PDF
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Type:
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Conference Paper |
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Author:
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Huang, Chien-Hsun; Tang, Ching-Ping; Chiu, Chung-Yuan |
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Conference:
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Commoners and the Changing Commons: Livelihoods, Environmental Security, and Shared Knowledge, the Fourteenth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons |
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Location:
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Mt. Fuji, Japan |
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Conf. Date:
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June 3-7, 2013 |
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Date:
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2013 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/8914
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Sector:
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Water Resource & Irrigation |
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Region:
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Middle East & South Asia |
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Subject(s):
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democratization
irrigation
self-governance
institutional analysis
IASC
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Abstract:
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"Meaningful user participation is widely believed to be essential for successful governance of common pool resources. Very limited discussion, however, has ever covered how empowerment and greater stakeholder engagement might actually destabilize a swellfunctioning governance system. Since the indigenous governing systems have played a critical role in managing natural resources and many of them are encountering democratization that substantiates participation and power?sharing, how they might evolve to survive deserves more attention. The irrigation system in Taiwan is a perfect case to demonstrate the challenges of enhancing participation, the strategic responses of actors, and consequences of democratization on a self-governing system. Inheriting from Japanese colonial rule, the irrigation system has carried prominent features of public?private partnership. On the one hand the public authority assumed the duty of supplying hardware that requires much bigger economy of scale. On the other hand, local self-governing associations were organized to coordinate the demand side sophistically through network governance. While this well-cited legendary system demonstrates the possibility of public-private synergy, it has been troubled by such snags as rampant rent-seeking activities, patron-client networking, and populism that most third?wave democratization countries have experienced. By in-depth field study in rural Taiwan, this research reveals negative impacts of unleashed participation on the indigenous resources governing system in the course of democratization. In addition to challenging the conventional wisdom of participatory governance, this study also examines the factors that have contributed to successful institutional adaptation that can help improving the survival of many indigenous institutions that are suffering dramatic political transition."
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