The Constitutional System and Disaster Risk Governance in Taiwan: a Perspective on Institutional Resilience

This article uses institutional resilience theory to explain how Taiwan’s constitutional system absorbs the impact of major governance challenges. The article chooses a major disaster that occurred in recent years in Taiwan, the 921 earthquake, to discuss how a constitutional system operations is reflected in the arrangements, flexibility, and corresponding mechanisms of the governance process. This article argues that as one of Taiwan’s most serious recent natural disasters, the 921earthquake reflected the adaptability of institutions in the disaster relief process, from its early stage of initial confusion to the central government’s slow gaining of control over the operational orbit and seeking of cooperation with local governments and the private sector. However, at the same time, the fact that social forces could play an important role in the governance process, even obtaining a position of active participation in political decision-making and establishing public-private cooperation, is related to the failure of the central government command system to effectively empower local governments.