If Taiwan were to adopt a parliamentary system, the president would serve as a ceremonial head of state, while the Chairman of the majority party in the Legislative Yuan would become the President of the Executive Yuan and be responsible for governing the country. One key advantage of this arrangement is that it would prevent conflicts between the executive and legislative branches, eliminating situations where the executive lacks majority support in the legislature.
In my opinion, a parliamentary system offers a more effective form of governance than either a presidential or semi-presidential system. How do you view this issue?
The point of the current system is that the executive branch keeps the legislative branch in check, and the legislative branch keeps the executive branch in check. It’s more suitable for younger democracies where politicians often have wilder ideas and need someone to stop them from going fully in on stupid ideas
The greatest flaw of the current system is that if the ruling party lacks a majority in the Legislative Yuan, it becomes extremely difficult to advance its policies. When the legislative and executive branches are at odds, it inevitably leads to political instability in the country.
The key is to give choice to the people, so they can give their first choice to people they really like without worrying about aiding the candidates they really don’t like. Once the voting system is fair, we can have a multi-party legislature without needing a parliamentary system. Not all parliamentary system are truly multi-party anyways.
Anyone proposing such a change does not understand the basic challenges involved in changing the consitutional arrangement. So as a thought experiment, OK. But as an actually possible change? Good luck.
Guy
Only if they constituionally become the Republic of Taiwan at the same time…
Another good point. The powers of the president, the executive yuan, and the legislature are written in the constitution. However, which voting system to use isn’t. So if one wishes to make Taiwan’s democracy more robust, it is much more likely to reform the voting system than to change the constitution at this point.
Taiwan should increase the number of legislators and adopt a mixed-member proportional system like Germany’s.
No system is perfect.
I prefer parliamentary systems because I believe heads of state should serve their country not their affiliated party.
But Taiwan’s system is working fine overall as well
A bicameral parliament might also help in this regard to, wouldn’t it?