The path of constitutional development in Taiwan has been complicated, difficult, and yet spectacular. Changes of regime in different periods of time from colonization to Kuomintang’s ruling to the political power handover to the opposition party in 2000 have had major impacts on the development of constitutionalism. In particular, democratic reforms beginning in the mid-80s and fermenting issues of nationalism and identity have also made the constitutional development in Taiwan more dynamic and profound than most third wave democratizing countries. The martial law, the Period of Mobilization for Suppressing the Communist Rebellion, tenured legislators, the National Assembly, and various stages of political developments experienced by the people in Taiwan, have all become history. The
process has not been smooth as most of the political advancements were accompanied by political crises, resistance, and compromises. From the several amendments made by the National Assembly on the Provisional Articles for the Period of Mobilization for Suppressing the Communist Rebellion to six rounds of constitutional revisions to the latest revisions voted by the mission-oriented representatives of the National Assembly revealed the fact that there is a close relationship between constitutional and political reforms. Undeniably, the mechanism of constitutional change has played a key role in regulating and codifying political reform over last two decades. To the surprise of most people, Taiwan completed the 7the round of constitutional revisions in 2005 with major changes in congressional structure, electoral system and constitutional revision process. Among the revisions, the introduction of a super high ceiling for constitutional public referendum may have the most profound impacts to further political development. How can a super high ceiling requirement of public referendum affect the nature of Taiwan’s constitutional change paradigm that has been incremental and elite-centric? The impact of the 2005 constitutional revision can be analyzed in two aspects. The first aspect is the direct influence in the political system brought about by the substantive part of the constitutional amendment. The second aspect is the paradigm shift based on the newly established pattern of change in constitutional reform resulted from the
extremely high referendum threshold. The reform of the Legislative Yuan and the electoral system, which were the major issues of this recent round of constitutional revisions, will sure have profound impacts on Taiwan’s politics, but more importantly, the public referendum mechanism introduced in the new constitutional revision has structurally initiated a paradigm shift in Taiwan’s path of constitutional change. The new pattern of Taiwan’s constitutional hange will focus on the high threshold for passing constitutional revisions, making constitutional reforms more citizen-centric and procedure-oriented. |