Politics and Decision-Making in the Taipei Dome Complex Project

Abstract

Taipei Dome Complex is arguably the most balanced public-private stadium project in Taiwan. Both cultural and political representation and significance of Taipei Dome have shaped a development agenda that leads politicians to pursue, contend, and negotiate their focused interests during the decision-making process, leaving those development externalities behind the scene. To analyze this dynamic process, this chapter divides Taipei Dome's decision-making process into five stages, including site selection (1992–99), stadium plan preparation (2000–03), the invitation to tender (2004–06), design review (2007–11), the commencement of construction works (2011–). While each thematic stage circulates specific issues and controversies within the political context to correspond with its problematic development agenda and issues, this chapter emphasizes the production of Taipei Dome within a selective historical and political context to illustrate how this 32-yearlong saga affects Taipei's natural, social, political, and living environment. This chapter concludes with the argument that Taipei Dome is a contested field in which politicians’ governing agendas have a strong influence on the decision-making stage and snowball issues, affecting Taiwan society's quality of life, public safety, and civic trust.