Taiwan is a multi-party democracy. In this kind of country, politicians of the ruling and opposition parties must know how to play the game of "alliance politics." The alliances involved in this game include electoral alliances, governing alliances and parliamentary alliances.
If an electoral alliance can win a majority, that will inevitably result in a governing and parliamentary alliance. An electoral alliance is not a prerequisite for a governing alliance, however, as can be seen in France during periods of "cohabitation." In most countries, however, governing and parliamentary alliances are often two sides of the same coin. This means a parliamentary alliance will not exist without a governing alliance.
A governing alliance, or a coalition government, takes shape mainly because no political party holds a majority of seats in the legislature. If the party with the largest number of seats does not want the disadvantages of being a minority government, it has no other choice but to cooperate with other parties -- by distributing government posts to them -- to create a coalition government. A parliamentary alliance will then naturally shape up to ensure that the coalition government enjoys majority support in the legislature.
But because it is political interests rather than political ideals, that lie behind the formation of a coalition government, frequent changes inevitably occur in relations within the alliance.
Even if a coalition government only enjoys a small majority, it is still better than a minority government. President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was elected by a plurality: he got more than the other candidates but still less than 50 percent of the total votes. No party in the Legislative Yuan, moreover, controls more than half of the seats. The theory of multi-party politics and the experience of other nations with multi-party systems suggests that Taiwan should form a coalition government.
Since the formation of a coalition government involves the allocation of government posts, the process should begin with cross-party negotiations. The biggest party naturally gets the largest number of -- and the most important -- posts in the government while the smallest party gets the fewest and least important. The formation of a coalition government depends on negotiations on -- rather than designation of -- government posts.
Since Chen took office, he has had the KMT's Tang Fei (唐飛) as premier, invited KMT members to join the Cabinet and asked Chiang Ping-kun (江丙坤) to serve as vice premier. These decisions were not made through negotiation, but rather through selective designation. Apparently he did not intend to form a coalition government.
The leaders of the KMT and the PFP are aficionados of politics and should therefore understand that a coalition government is the only choice at the moment. But they have forgotten everything they have learned. They favor confrontation instead of alliances. Coalitions are not on their agenda. Yet it is the absence of a coalition government that is the primary factor behind Taiwan's chaotic political situation.
Since there is no governing alliance in Taiwan at present, there should in theory be no "parliamentary alliance" either. But apparently Chen wants to set a global precedent -- a minority government with a majority in the legislature. Were he to succeed, the textbooks on politics would have to be rewritten and Taiwan would become the model multi-party system. Neither the history of the world nor the current reality in Taiwan, however, allow for optimism that this will happen. While we must give the cross-party "alliance for national stabilization" a try, coalition government is really the only way to go.
Wang Chien-chuang is president of The Journalist magazine.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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