Advocacy coalitions and policy change on nuclear power utilization in Taiwan

Before the mid-1980s, the development of nuclear power was regarded as essential to facilitate Taiwan's rapid economic growth. Since 1980s, the feasibility of utilizing nuclear power has been intensively challenged. The policy impact of rise of the anti-nuclear movement and environmental movement in conjunction with democratizing trends is especially evident in the controversy over constructing the Fourth nuclear power plant in Taiwan. Ongoing construction of the plant was halted after the anti-nuclear presidential candidate won in Taiwan's 2000 presidential election. However, the decision to scrap the project was abandoned and the project was resumed in less than four months. This article applies the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to explain and analyze the development of advocacy coalition and policy change on nuclear power utilization in Taiwan. Based on this study, it is argued that the ACF could be more useful for comparative applications if it takes both political context and international influences into account.