After Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last week announced her plans to dissolve the Japanese parliament and call a snap election, some people saw this as a potential model for institutional reform. However, what people should pay attention to is whether Taiwan’s political parties have the capacity to ensure the country’s regular functioning.
Taiwan and Japan share the conundrum of the governing party holding a minority of seats. However, unlike in Taiwan, the Japanese prime minister can dissolve parliament in the event of a political deadlock and call snap elections to seek a new mandate.
Taiwan’s system is closer to a presidential model with separation of powers. It features checks and balances between the government branches, but lacks institutional mechanisms for resolving deadlocks. Once political parties refuse to cooperate, governance grinds to a halt.
The budget debacle last year was evidence enough. The opposition made history with the scale of their budget reductions, and forced the Executive Yuan to file for reconsideration six times. Meanwhile, procedural committees have repeatedly blocked filings and raised black-box proposals, gradually paralyzing democratic controls. The outcome has not been bolstered oversight, and checks and balances, but a stagnation of government functions.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party must take their positions seriously. Being in opposition does not necessitate blanket rejections, and oversight need not equal total paralysis.
Multi-party democracies have long demonstrated that cooperation and policy negotiations are key to preventing national derailment. When the opposition always angles for confrontation and indiscriminately blocks whatever they can, it comes at the expense of Taiwanese.
The challenge is not whether Taiwan could recreate Japan’s mechanism for parliamentary dissolution, but whether it could bring politics and the legislature back to reality.
An unwillingness to shoulder governance responsibility only exacerbates systemic failures. Democracy is not a race to shut down the government, it is a test of who can work together to keep the country moving forward despite disagreements.
Yang Chih-chiang is a teacher.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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