State Power and Globalization: Adjustments of Taiwan’s Agricultural Policy under the WTO.

Under the dominant explanatory epistemology, two rationalistic approaches have dominated the field: while Liberalism/Neo-Liberal Institutionalism would empathize how a state may seek to strategize its policy in an institutional setting, Realism/Neo-Realism would posit that a state’s policy is decided by its position in the international system. In this study, we would adopt a constructive approach by examining how Taiwan, as an agent, may have pondered over interacting with the structure, defined here as the systemic social norm of free trade under the World Trade Organization (WTO). As Taiwan has long been isolated in the international stage, it has to construct its national identity and understand its nationa security and national interests within the emerging social context in the age of globalization, when the state has to adjust its functions. With this understanding, the new global norms are no longer perceived as merely constraints or accelerators of Taiwan’s foreign policy behavior. Rather, Taiwan is endeavoring to challenge the international political structure of no-recognizing Taiwan by being actively engaged in the WTO, alternatively perceived as the Economic United Nations. Hence, Taiwan is adjusting its agricultural policy from protective input subsidies and price supports to direct payments to the farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]