Sustainable Development Policy Outputs and Correlated Factors of Local Governments in Taiwan
Author: Yueh-pang Fu
Abstract / Chinese PDF Download
Based on K. E. Portney’s conceptual framework for sustainable cities, this paper evaluates sustainable development policies promoted by local governments in Taiwan from 2010 to 2014. The ecological, economic, societal and general aspects of sustainable development policy outputs are examined, respectively, for each of the local governments. Do characteristics of demographic, local resource, population and employment, as well as environmental predisposition variables, correlate with the sustainable development policy outputs of each of the local governments?
First of all, according to the statistical findings, the percentage of local governments that have reached sustainable development policy output standards is about 68%. In addition, the six municipalities in Taiwan (Taipei, New Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung cities) have not performed better than the other local governments. Comparatively speaking, ecological sustainability is the top priority pursued by local governments, societal sustainability comes next, and economic sustainability is their final choice. Secondly, the findings show that the unemployment rate, the median value of housing, per capita government spending, population growth, the proportion of the population that is well-educated, and the percent of commuters using public transportation are all factors that correlate significantly with sustainable development policy outputs. Unexpectedly, the factors of total government spending on the environment and party affiliation of city mayors (or county-in-chiefs) do not play key roles in determining sustainable development policy outputs, which implies that local governments cannot achieve sustainability simply by relying on money or partisan alignments.