Taiwan—Political System

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Politics of the Republic of China Summary

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Taiwan—Political System

In the last decade of the twentieth century, the Republic of China on Taiwan became the first full-fledged multiparty democracy in Chinese history. The ongoing process of democratization has been accompanied by a growing feeling of Taiwanese identity vis-à-vis Chinese identity and has led to increasing tensions with the People's Republic of China, which considers Taiwan to be a renegade province. Both developments—democratization and Taiwanization—have greatly influenced the process of constitutional reforms and the balance of power between different political parties. They cannot be understood correctly without knowing the historical background, that is, the constitution of 1947, that was reformed in 1989.

Constitution of 1947 Structure

The Constitution of 1947 permitted democracy, guaranteed civil liberties, and promoted political participation. It was an eclectic mixture of Chinese and Western elements. It outlined a political system consisting not of three, but of five powers, called the councils (yuan). Two councils derived from the traditional Chinese institutions of the examination system and the censorate. The Examination Yuan fulfills the functions of a civil-service commission, while the Control Yuan (equivalent to the censorate) oversees government administration. The three other councils—the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial Yuan—can be compared with the three powers in Western parliamentarism, in which the chief of the cabinet (Executive Yuan) is the head of government and is responsible to the parliament (Legislative Yuan).

However, the constitution also had elements from a presidential system: the National Assembly and the president. The National Assembly elected the president and had, for example, the right to change the constitution. The president acted as the head of state and was the supreme commander of the armed forces. He also had the right to rule in times of unrest with the help of emergency powers. Although his powers exceeded those of a president in parliamentary systems, this presidency was not really an executive institution.

As a consequence of this amalgam, the 1947 constitution was neither presidential nor purely parliamentary. It was complicated by severe legal problems: not only was it marred by two competing legislative and executive blocs (the Legislative Yuan and the premier versus the National Assembly and the president), but also the relationship between those blocs was not clear. There were no functional boundaries, nor did any feasible system of checks and balances exist. No regulation, for example, existed for the instance in which the president and the premier, who is responsible to the Legislative Yuan but has to be nominated by the president, come from competing political parties.

Constitutional Practice Until 1990

In practice, the constitution of 1947 was in effect only for six months. From 1948 on, and especially after the defeat of the Nationalists in the civil war and their withdrawal to Taiwan in 1949, the president of the republic and chairman of the Nationalist Party (Guomindang, GMD), Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975), ruled with the help of emergency decrees and martial law. As a consequence, the bifurcated but predominantly parliamentary system of 1947 was replaced by a dictatorship dominated by the president.

Constitutional Reforms Since 1990

Starting in 1986, the GMD allowed some liberalization of the Nationalist government on Taiwan. It abolished martial law, legalized the formation of political parties, and removed restrictions on civil rights. In 1990, the GMD decided to reelect all representative institutions and to reform the constitution. In 1991 Lee Teng-hui, who succeeded Chiang Kai-shek's son Chiang Ching-kuo as president, rescinded the emergency laws. In the following years, the political system on Taiwan has been readjusted toward a presidential system of government.

The National Assembly was stripped of most of its powers and is no longer directly elected; it is now mainly responsible for constitutional changes. The president, who since 1996 has been elected directly, has gained in power. The premier has become a kind of executive agent of the president, who, albeit still with only a few clearly defined executive powers of his own, is now able to dominate the Executive Yuan. The Legislative Yuan now can propose a no-confidence vote against the premier. However, it runs the risk of being dissolved by the president if it does so. Whereas these changes are a step in the direction of a system with more checks and balances, the problem of a bifurcated political system remains unsolved. If a political party different from that of the president should dominate the Legislative Yuan, the president would have to nominate a premier from that party. Because the president and the premier are not urged to cooperate in a state council and because the legal executive powers of the president are still very limited, a constitutional crisis could well be the consequence.

Electoral Competition Between Political Parties

Parallel to the constitutional reforms, since 1990 the party system has undergone far-reaching changes, which in the end led to the landslide defeat of the GMD in the presidential elections of March 2000. In 1986, the GMD tolerated the establishment of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which united major forces of the previous opposition against the GMD. Since the early 1970s, this opposition had fought for democratization and Taiwanization of the polity. In the years after 1986, the GMD managed to incorporate many of the opposition's demands and therefore was able to maintain the upper hand in most of the central elections. The changes of GMD policy meant that the party was increasingly troubled by inner-party struggles between Lee Teng-hui's policy of further Taiwanization and those who leaned toward the long-term goal of reunification with the mainland.

In August 1993, the first split resulted in the establishment of the New China Party, which was not able to garner more than 10 percent of the votes in the elections. In 1999, the GMD split a second time, with James Soong, the previous governor of Taiwan Province and the GMD secretary general, declaring that he would run as an independent candidate in the presidential elections. In these elections, the GMD candidate, Lien Chan, got 23.1 percent of the vote; James Soong received 36.8 percent; and the DPP candidate, Chen Shui-bian, got 39.3 percent. The conflicts within the GMD hence enabled the DPP to score a historic victory and, at the same time, led to the situation of a president who has to cope with a Legislative Yuan dominated by another party.

Results of Ten Years of Reform

After more than a decade of constant reforms and tremendous changes, the political system of the Republic of China on Taiwan today is fully democratized and is by and large characterized by a consensus that Taiwan has its own identity. A vibrant and still-changing party system has developed that makes it hard to predict future developments. As a result of the GMD split that followed the presidential elections of March 2000, James Soong established a new political party, the Peoples First Party. This party's performance will have at least as great an influence on the future political development of Taiwan as the outcome of the GMD party reforms triggered by the defeat of March 2000 and the performance of the DPP as a quasi-government party.

The constitutional situation has improved, but it still needs further adjustments in order to clarify the power relation between the president, the premier, the Legislative Yuan, and the National Assembly, so as to ensure a stable political system with a government that will be able to react quickly and with a unified voice when dealing with future internal and external challenges.

Axel Schneider