Evaluating spatial policies without indicators: A study on Taiwan as a developmental state in transition

Abstract

Policy evaluations are crucial in promoting effective administrations. However, evaluations of spatial policies are rare, due to its ambiguity and complexity. Especially when a developmental state transitions to democracy, the loss of top-down leadership disables formulation of indicators for evaluations. In such cases, it is essential to search for new evaluation methods and approaches. This paper introduces a Taiwanese and East Asian context, with a unique historical path toward democracy, which is rarely discussed regarding policy evaluation, especially spatial policy evaluation. As the "hard" developmental states democratize and value more human aspects instead of sheer economic development, compared with "hard" methods such as quantitative impact evaluations, "soft" measures like process evaluation, participatory evaluation and self-assessment may enhance cross-departmental dialogues and connections between policies and executors. With humans at the center of space use and policy making, this research explores the possibility of bottom-up evaluation without indicators. The new ideas proposed here bridge the vacancies of power dominance in developmental states during transition, and serve as references for such states in current times, especially in the Asian region.

Keywords: Participatory approach; Policy evaluation; Self-evaluation; Spatial policy; Strategic spatial plan.