Changing patterns of guanshuo and job matching in Taiwan's institutional transformation (China)

The purpose of the dissertation is to explore the effect of institutional transformation on the role of social relations in political and economic activities in Taiwan between the mid-1980s and the late 1990s. It draws upon research on guanxi in China studies, work in the field of development, and theories of new institutionalism and embeddedness in the field of economic sociology. Specifically, the study examines the changes of guanshuo (to influence the government administration or policymaking via personal contacts) and job matching, both in terms of actual behaviors and as they are viewed as cultural strategies. Primary data are drawn from the General Survey of Social Change in Taiwan conducted by Academia Sinica. In addition to the study of the changing importance of relational practices, binary logistical regressions are used to test the effects of age, gender, education, ethnicity, self-employment and job sector over time. National statistics, public polls and journal articles are included to support the arguments. The results reveal that both guanshuo and job matching via personal contacts decline in the reform years. It is suggested that the emergence of multiple-party system, mass media liberalization and other political and judicial reform are the major factors shaping the declining reliance on guanshuo . Changing economic structure, economic and financial liberation, increasing foreign companies, and enhanced function of mass media have led to the decrease of relational job matching. Besides the quantitative changes, the dissertation also discusses qualitative changes on the roles of personal relations. It concludes that the adoption of Western rational institutions has had profound effects on political and economic behavior in Taiwan.