The 120 members of the Econo-mic Development Advisory Conference, after one month of discussion, came up with 322 resolutions. These resolutions will be implemented by the Cabinet. This is the first time Taiwan has adopted collective decision-making to make public policy outside the state system.
Although an Economic Reform Conference was also held in 1983 when late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) was in office, the resolutions of that conference were not binding on the government; rather they were meant to encourage the free airing of views. President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) purpose in holding the advisory conference, however, was quite the opposite of that of the reform conference.
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) held a National Development Conference outside the state system in 1996. Lee's purpose was to amend the Constitution. It was natural to bring together the various different political forces for such a purpose.
Chen's intention in holding the advisory conference was to save the economy. Since the government has both the authority and the responsibility to make economic policy, it need not necessarily bring together the different political forces outside the state system. Moreover, even if the government did wish to bring those different political forces together, there's no reason why it should make all the conference resolutions binding on the Cabinet. But Chen stated before the event that the executive branch would not refuse to implement the resolutions.
In most democracies, public policy is usually made as part of a minority decision-making process within the state system. Not only is collective decision-making unheard of outside the state system, but it is seldom seen inside it either, except when the nation's leadership is at stake, or the power structure inside the state system has changed.
Take, for example, Chiang's "10 major construction projects" of the 1970s, former US president Bill Clinton's health care project, US President George W. Bush's tax-cut bill, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's reform of public services and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's large-scale economic reform plan. All these proposals were products of minority decision-making within the state system. It is necessary for responsible governments to come up with decisions from the state system.
The advisory conference departed from the regular decision-making procedure, under which national policy is made by the government and agreement on the policy is reached in the legislature. Not only were the policies not made by the government, but they were made according to agreements reached outside the state system. That being so, both the Cabinet and legislature have been reduced to the role of executor, responsible for implementing the resolutions.
Although Chen has set a precedent for "consensus rule," such a decision-making mode is obviously a temporary expedient and should not be taken as his philosophy in ruling the nation. Otherwise, after saving the economy, presumably the government will have to save cross-strait relations by following the same path. It is possible to reach consensus on economic issues., but it has never been an easy task to reach consensus on cross-strait issues. It will be no surprise if the "consensus rule," ushered in by the conference, is never seen again.
"Consensus rule" is not the normal way to govern a nation. A collective decision-making process outside the state system does not tally with the principle of responsible politics. Hopefully, Chen will learn that consensus rule may come as a result of luck, but is not to be expected. Most importantly, Chen should not rule the nation solely by his own political ideologies any more.
Wang Chien-chuang is president of The Journalist magazine.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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