Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Looking back at major social events in Taiwan over the last century, I believe that late Yilan County commissioner Chen Ding-nan’s (陳定南) decision to not allow Formosa Petrochemical Corp to build the sixth naphtha cracker in his county had a great impact on the environment and the residents in that area. It was an historic event to which some additional thought should be given.

At the time, many officials spoke up in favor of Formosa Plastics Group when the government was making the environmental impact assessment of the plant, but they failed to examine the group’s environmental record both at home and abroad. In addition, they did not review Taiwan’s environmental protection standards to find out if they were perhaps too lax or whether law enforcement was accurate.

In the field of international relations, there is a theory called “domestic audience cost.” According to this theory, the political leaders of a country might send out signals to intensify a conflict with an enemy state in the hope that this will function as a deterrent to the state in question. This is risky, however, because if they then pull back once conflict intensifies, they run the risk of disappointing their domestic audience. The cost of that could affect their political standing.

In democracies, the domestic audience cost is evaluated in regular elections where voters can punish those leaders that have disappointed them through their ballots. In authoritarian countries, however, there are no regular elections to highlight domestic audience cost.