The concept of marginality is very important in economics. The most effective strategies of both consumers and manufacturers are to ensure that marginal revenues equal marginal costs. Outside the field of economics, however, people do not easily understand the significance of the concept. This should come as no surprise, since the concept is given less prominence in other fields.
From September 2000 to August last year, I took a year's leave to serve as a visiting scholar at Oxford University in the UK. I made some new friends there, one of whom is a historian specializing in Hong Kong and Tai-wanese politics.
One day we somehow came to talk about former president Lee Teng-hui (
I also mentioned an incident that is said to have occurred between Lee and military leaders. The latter had just briefed Lee on certain military deployments. When the briefing was over, Lee in an all-knowing manner, criticized the deployments and asked why they hadn't been carried out in this or that manner.
The military leaders immediately complimented Lee, telling him that he was absolutely right, that he was a military genius and that they themselves had never thought of such a brilliant strategy. From that day on, Lee thought of himself precisely as a military genius.
When my friend heard this, he smiled and said that if, during a World War II briefing with the then British prime minister Winston Churchill, the commander-in-chief of the British Army had said that that the army was attacking target A, and if Churchill had objected, saying that they should be attacking target B, then the general would have said that while his professional judgement told him that A should be the target, he would respect the chain of command.
But, my friend added, the commander-in-chief would have requested that the order be issued in writing so that future historians would be left in no doubt about its provenance.
I told my friend that this would be unimaginable in a Chinese society. Since returning to Taiwan, I have asked a great many friends in government about this issue. They have all shaken their heads, saying that, at least in Taiwan's administrative system, it remains inconceivable that such "vulgar challenges" could be issued to superiors.
This is true. Absolute authority is not only something we hear about and see in our daily lives. Not even in situations where relative degrees of authority are allowed do different authorities coexist or balance each other.
A while back, the Cabinet was short of a vice premier. After negotiations, the former grand justice Lai In-jaw (
The main task of the vice premier is to assist with policy implementation. When it comes to networking and handling alliances, he therefore has to do his utmost to build good relationships and to tolerate different interests. Furthermore, Cabinet leaders change with shifts in political power, and so their concerns extend no further than to gains and losses over the next few years.
By comparison, in its leadership of the day-to-day workings of the judicial system, the Judicial Yuan is a sort of arbiter of politico-economic activities. Like a sports referee, it does not intervene in the game, seeking only to ensure that the rules of the game are observed. The Council of Grand Justices is in turn the arbiters' arbiters. The council looks at constitutional order, the rules that ensure long-term social peace and order. The justices' character, learning, personal relationships and so on, differ substantially from those of the bureaucrats in the executive branch.
Maybe it would be inappropriate to blame the executive and the judicial branches for cooperating and making up for each others' shortcomings during a period in which society was in turmoil and the state's structure under development. But a mix-up between the two in a more mature society that emphasizes professional relationships amounts to a distortion and a trampling of these two core systems of values.
It's a pity that Lai was so gloriously elevated to the post of vice premier. After a while the Cabinet was reorganized. Lai did not move further up the ranks, and he now wants to return to the Judicial Yuan and the Council of Grand Justices. To this end, he was happily taking advantage of the relationships he developed during his stint in the executive branch to garner support for the legislative review. After returning to the Judicial Yuan, maybe he will have a rest to prepare for future big responsibilities.
It's interesting (or perhaps I should say tragic), however, that Lai is able to transfer from the judiciary to the executive branch and then back again without any problems whatsoever. Not only has there been no reaction from within either the judicial or executive branches -- since there is no tradition of contradicting superiors -- but his move hasn't even caused a ripple in public opinion or in legal circles.
Maybe Lai's appointments and withdrawals are reflections of the concept of marginality in non-economic activities.
In a mature democracy governed by the rule of law, the executive and judicial branches are two radically different systems. They have their separate functions, their separate traditions and they insist on different principles. Each branch's tradition becomes of paramount importance in its dealings, while individual issues become relatively small, or "marginal." The commander-in-chief of the army is confident that he can rely on his professional opinion to express disagreement with the prime minister, for example.
What's more, since traditions are shaped over long periods of time, the significance or insignificance of short-term considerations can easily be determined. In accordance with its own powers, the Judicial Yuan can tactfully decline the appointment to the Cabinet of a grand justice and it can also decline the appointment of a vice premier to the position of grand justice. And since there are precedents to follow, the "marginal" responsibilities that have to be shouldered by individuals can be diminished in the same way.
Following the traditions of the Judicial Yuan, Lai could have declined a move to the Cabinet.
If, on the other hand, the executive and judicial branches are only superficially separated, and can cooperate at any time to make up for each other's short-comings, then both branches are obvious tools for the pursuit of short-term political interests, striving only for the advantages and gains immediately available and ignoring the shaping of long-term values.
In economic activities, the concept of marginality is clear and easy to grasp. In other fields it is vague and unclear. Looking at it in the abstract, however, whether in economics or in other fields, the long-term direction of society is determined by the accumulation of individual decisions. An individual decision is not of great importance, but a series of such decisions can combine to make the difference between advancement and backwardness, affluence and poverty.
Looking at it from this perspective, individual decisions clearly carry another kind of "marginal" significance.
Hsiung Bing-yuang is an economics professor at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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