Title: The President Refuses to Cohabit: Semi-Presidentialism in Taiwan
Abstract: I. INTRODUCTIONTaiwan has practiced a form of (see below) since 1997, if not earlier. Because of its short history of political liberalization (beginning in the 1990s) and the relatively few scholarly researched works on semi-presidentialism, Taiwan's situation has attracted little attention on a global scale.1 Under the current constitution, Taiwan has experienced continuous gridlock between the executive and the legislature since 2000. This seems to throw into question claims that semi-presidentialist governments enjoy both the regime stability of presidential governments and the flexibility of parliamentary systems.2 Most commentators in Taiwan seem resigned to the fact that further constitutional amendments are virtually impossible due to the opposition's refusal to join in the required super majority in parliament for initiating constitutional amendments. Since that is the case, there appears to be no feasible solution to the stalemate.4 Neither impression is accurate.This article will first describe the evolution of the concept of semi-presidentialism, both in Taiwan and worldwide. It will then explain how the institutional design of can resolve deadlocks between the executive and the legislature. I intend to show that the stalemate between Taiwan's president and the presidential cabinet on the one hand, and the legislature on the other, derives not so much from inherent difficulties of this regime type but from haphazard constitutional drafting in 1997 and the particular political culture in Taiwan. I also will demonstrate that semipresidential systems are not confined to either the super-presidential type,5 or the sharing of executive power in the so-called cohabitation.6 A less effective minority government7 may nevertheless emerge under the semipresidential regime, as is the case in Taiwan, if the selection of the prime minister does not require the consent of parliament.Considering the presidential politics in Taiwan, I will argue that cohabitation, perhaps as the second-best choice, is not the necessary outcome where the president in a semi-presidential regime faces the opposition of the majority in parliament. Despite ample historical precedents, scholars have failed to stress that resignation, or an offer thereof, by the president could be a legitimate strategic maneuver for ending the gridlock between the executive and the legislature in semi-presidential regimes.8 Obviously, there is no constitutional requirement that the president in a semi-presidential regime maintain the confidence of either the electorate or parliament during the fixed term. The fixed term, however, would not be a barrier to solving Taiwan's executive/legislative gridlock9 if the requirement that the president serve the term is abandoned. I will argue that semi-presidential regimes should also require that the president posses the power to initiate the dissolution of parliament in order to break the executive/legislative gridlock, and that the constitution should contain provisions for the president to accept the outcome of parliamentary elections to prevent the occurrence of government deadlock between the cabinet and parliament.II. SEMI-PRESIDENTIALISMThe term semi-presidentialism first entered mainstream academic discussions with the arrival of Maurice Duverger's disposition of the concept around 1970.10 Later, in his 1980 article, discussing the practices of the French central government under the 1958 Constitution of the French Fifth Republic, Duverger established the definition of this regime type in the Western world.11 Today, scholars generally agree that this design is unlike the parliamentary system, where the prime minister heads the government and is usually a leader of the majority party, or at least supported by the majority consisting of a coalition of parties in parliament. In such a system, the prime minister stays in power as long as he enjoys the majority's confidence. …
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 9
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