While many have blamed the political instability of the past six months on the "minority" nature of the government led by President Chen Shui-bian (
In particular, constitutional law scholars say that a bungled attempt at reforming the Constitution in 1997 has been a contributing factor to the current state of political chaos.
Their opinions are divided, however, over a possible solution to the problem and whether the creation of a coalition government is the answer.
"Theoretically speaking, the president can appoint anyone to become the premier under the present system. But the president should be aware that the premier he appoints will never be able to implement any of his policies unless these policies reflect the preferences of a majority of lawmakers," says Tsai Tzung-jen (蔡宗珍), associate professor of law at Tamkang University.
This is exactly the reason why there has been a tradition of cohabitation (左右共治) in France, where a semi-presidential system (雙首長制) was first introduced in the Constitution of the Fifth Republic (第五共和), devised by Charles de Gaulle in 1958, Tsai added.
"This is a political maneuver based on practical needs, though it is not required constitutionally," Tsai points out.
The semi-presidential system, according to constitutional law scholars, refers to a form of government with a separately-elected president who shares executive power with the premier. It alternates between presidential and parliamentary systems, depending on which party, or coalition of parties, maintains the majority in the legislature.
In cohabitation, the separately-elected president faces a premier and majority party in the legislature who are from a different party than his own.
No precedent of cohabitation, however, has been established in Taiwan, which most scholars concur acquired the constitutional framework for a semi-presidential system in 1997.
The 1997 round of constitutional reform was jointly accomplished by the KMT and the DPP to induce major changes to the constitutional framework. These were in addition to those already undertaken with the introduction in 1994 of a popular vote to select the president.
The main intention of the KMT's reforms, under the leadership of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), was in fact to remove a constitutional restriction on the president in appointing the premier -- namely that the appointment had to be confirmed by a majority vote of the legislature.
With the legislature's power to block the appointment of the premier removed, it was instead given the power to propose a no-confidence vote against the premier. Passage of a no-confidence vote, however, may lead to a retaliatory move from the president, who can dismiss the legislature and force re-elections.
Unlike the French system, Taiwan's system does not empower the president to dissolve the legislature on a proactive basis.
These experimental measures have been put to the test after the DPP's Chen, who won the presidential race by a close margin with 39 percent of the votes, assumed the presidency on May 20 of this year. For the first time, the president faces a legislature in which the majority party is not his own.
The KMT has the majority of seats in the legislature and will continue to do so at least until the next legislative election, scheduled for December 2001. The DPP only controls approximately one-third of the legislative seats.
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