This paper applies the theory of state-centrism to explore the role of state capacity in the process by which the state adjust divergent social preferences to maintain or enhance its autonomy. The paper suggests that since 2008, some of the Ma government's attempts to maintain autonomy in the area of Cross-Strait policy by adjusting divergent social preferences succeeded while others failed. The government was successful when it used infrastructural capacity to enhance autonomy and failed when it tried to employ despotic capacity to do so. In the latter cases, preference divergence widened and society sanctioned the state. This study also shows that the particularity of Cross-Strait relations and the transformation of Taiwan's political and economic systems weakened the Ma government's infrastructural capacity in the area of Cross-Strait policy. The article proposes a new model of democratic state autonomy to describe the process by which state capacity influences preference divergence.