Constitutional issues were not on the agenda at the Economic Development Advisory Conference, but the meeting nevertheless made some unexpected positive developments in that regard.
During the conference, President Chen Shui-bian (
After a year of fierce struggle between the ruling and opposition parties, the three leaders have finally gone back to constitutional principles and the fundamentals of party politics.
Although the notion of a coalition government is no longer a contentious issue, we might still need to clear up certain matters if we are to see the smooth formation of such a coalition.
First, we have to determine who has the power to nominate the premier and form the Cabinet. The dictum currently in vogue is that the president possesses the power to nominate the premier, but this is actually incorrect. The president in fact has the direct and exclusive power to appoint the premier. Even if the nation is forced to undergo a left-right "co-habitation," the president can at least choose the premier from among the opposition.
Viewed from a narrow legal standpoint, the power to form the Cabinet belongs to the premier. If we examine the issue from the point of view of legal procedure, the president only has indirect power to appoint Cabinet members because it is the premier who nominates them. In a broader sense, we can only say that the president and the premier share the power to form a Cabinet.
When Chen analyzes the pros and cons of different Cabinet scenarios, he should consider the number of seats that each political party wins in the elections, how much influence he can have in the Cabinet, what level of political stability he hopes to achieve, the price he wants to pay in the form of Cabinet seats and the political stances of the parties that might be included in a coalition.
The different forms of Cabinets include a minority government, a single-party DPP majority Cabinet, a minimum majority coalition, a super-stable coalition with a two-thirds majority and co-habitation.
Of course, in a perfect coalition Cabinet, the president would have the most influence, incur the least cost (in terms of seats) and achieve the best results (a stable political situation). But there are no such Cabinets.
In terms of results, the ideal model would be a super-stable Cabinet, but the costs involved would be relatively high. The second best would be a minimum majority, formed with a party that shares a similar policy platform.
A minimum majority coalition comprised of parties with different political stances will involve lower costs but achieve poor results. This might be the reason why DPP lawmaker Shen Fu-hsiung (
Although we can envision possible scenarios based on costs and effects, it is premature to talk about which parties should form a coalition because no one knows how many seats each party will win in December. In addition, the political paths of each party may change drastically after the elections. The KMT itself has changed repeatedly in the past.
The success of the conference was mainly the result of changes on the part of the political parties. Whatever the political situation after the year-end elections, Taiwan's democratic politics will have room to move forward.
We can arrive at the tentative conclusion that even though the conference was not perfect it has nevertheless created many profoundly influential opportunities to change the chaotic political scene.
Lin Cho-shui is a DPP legislator.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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