Micro-Politics Study for Participatory Budgeting of Administrative Agency in Major Hakka Cultural Areas(2/2)

Participatory budgeting promoted by six municipalities in Taiwan in recent years is a democratic innovation that has caught attention. In particular, Taoyuan City is the local government best capable of reflecting the impact of ethnic politics on citizen participation. This project adopted the qualitative longitudinal multiple case study to explore the micro-politics dynamics of participatory budgeting promoted by administrative agencies in representative Hakka communities in Taoyuan City in three years, with a focus on Major Hakka Cultural Development Areas. Specifically, this project carried out an empirical study targeting the “collective knowledge” and “practice” of participatory budgeting related political actors in representative Hakka communities. The Fukang Community in mountain Hakka areas, Yunghsing Community in marina Hakka areas, and Kaolian Community in urban Hakka areas were selected. In-depth interviews and participant observation were employed to collect empirical data, analyze local administrative agencies, city councils, district offices, neighborhood civilians, clans, political parties/factions, industries/merchants, village chiefs, gentries/cultural and historical workers, civic groups, and other political actors regarding participatory budget promotion practice domains where political decisions are made according to their own collective knowledge, and interpret the various types of political actors’ practices in different stages of participatory budgeting. In this project, the theoretical goal is to propose the “Hakka Participatory Neighborhood Symbiosis Theory” through a comparison of the micro-politics dynamics of Hakka communities featuring three types of geographical characteristics in order to create the spirit of the domain of Hakka ethnic groups, which shall serve as the basis discourse on resolving Hakka communities’ existing problems and future challenges. The practice goal is to refine participatory budgeting into a policy tool for the spirit of democracy and civic awareness to take root among the Hakka neighborhoods through the procedural design and institutional arrangement put forward by micro-politics domain related empirical studies.