Abstract Taiwan is formally known as the Republic of China (ROC). Although the island is independent in all but name, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) considers it a renegade province and has threatened to take military action if de jure independence is declared. After 50 years of colonial rule by Japan, the Chinese Nationalist- Kuomintang (KMT) forces took over the island when the Second World War ended in 1945. Four years later as China’s civil war phased out, the KMT government-in-exile retreated to Taiwan. The 1946 constitution invented a unique government structure composing of five separate branches (yuan). The President, who is directly elected for up to two four-year terms, wields executive power, appoints the Prime Minister, and can dissolve the legislature. The Executive Yuan consists of the ministers appointed by the President on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is responsible to the Legislative Yuan composing of 113 members serving four-year terms. The three other branches of the government are the judiciary-Judicial Yuan, a watching body – Control Yuan, a branch in charge of civil-service examinations – Examination Yuan. Authoritarianism Martial law was executed by Chiang Kai-Shek on 20th of May, 1949 in order to consolidate state power and overcome the political and the reforms. These harsh measures strengthened the ruling party’s ability to control and mobilize party members, the military, the bureaucracy, the youth, the workers and the farmers. And it thus shaped a “hard authoritarianism”. The KMT government controlled the politico-economic power structure as well as the operation of authoritarianism. The 1950-1953 Korean war brought U.S. aid back to Taiwan after one-year interruption. With a view to preserving Taiwan as America’s “cornerstone in the Pacific Rim” in the Containment Age, the United States provided substantial financial and technical assistance to help Taiwan develop its economy. It was perceived that the United States preferred allying with and supporting the authoritarian regime under Chiang Kai-Shek rather than encouraging democratization and liberalization. Meanwhile, the KMT government carried out a series of the relevant policies. And they drew the emerging development with a high growth rate from the early 1960s, however, significant international politico-economic challenges started to rise before the stage in the end of the decade. In 1969, President Nixon announced his Guam doctrine to withdraw the U.S. military presence in Asia. In February 1972, he realized his word to visit the People’s Republic of China. Japanese premier Tanaka followed in October 1972, and built the official relations with the PRC. Under these circumstances, Taiwan retreated from the United Nations in 1971, and since then Taiwan has become one of the most isolated countries on earth. The oil crisis, which broke out in 1972 made the matter worse. Hence, the KMT government was forced to implement an inward-looking political reform. Under the rule of hard authoritarianism, the human rights protection and the citizenship principle mentioned in the constitution were not thoroughly put into practice. Such as demonstration and strike were banned as well as the right of voting and being elected was confined to regular local elections. A series of diplomatic setbacks in the early 1970s aroused the intellectual and the political opposition figures’ attention to ask for political reform and further democratization. After Chiang Ching-Kuo took up the position of premier in 1972, in order to enlarge his power base he recruited or promoted some intellectuals and native Taiwanese such as the former president - Lee Teng-Hui to important positions. As Taiwan successfully developed its economy the emerging middle class had more and more intention to stand up and apply for the human rights and the citizenship prohibited under the Martial Law. The Chungli Incident in 1977 founded a crucial milestone in Taiwan’s democratization. From a suspected vote cheating in a local election, the incident became out of control into a mass riot in which people burned out a police station and smashed police cars. This is the first time the authority of the KMT ruling force was challenged on public. The transition to democracy, however, did not take the efficient step until the middle of 1980s. Democratization After The Mid-1980s After the lifting of Martial Law was declared in 1987, Taiwan’s political system has made a significant change –the remnants of Chiang Kai-Shek/Chiang Ching-Kuo’s authoritarian regime transformed into a system of democracy. As the main role in the process of the democratization Lee Teng-Hui administration managed to reduce the less negative impacts on Taiwanese society while carrying out the system reform. During this political process, the clash between the ruling and opposition parties in the following elections, and the competition for leadership within the Kuomintang were big challenges to the Lee Teng-Hui administration which tried to ensure the steady progression of gradual reforms. The reforms were realized step by step after Lee Teng-Hui, who is hand-picked by the Chiang Ching-Kuo became the first Taiwanese-born president in 1988, breaking the mainland émigrés stranglehold on politics. His first presidency lasted 8 year since 1988. At first the media were liberalized and the opposition political parties legalized in 1989. While Lee started to move the wheels of democratization, he encountered the great difficulty of how to reconstruct the constitutional system. The fact is that Taiwan was unable to establish a new constitutional system at the same time as it achieved democratization. Furthermore, the more difficult is related to the fact that Taiwan must proceed with domestic reforms in the face of external constraints unlike anything encountered by any other sovereign nation, namely the knotty and sensitive cross-strait relations with China. During Lee’s 12-year presidency, from 1988 to 2000, he achieved four-step constitutional revision. He also played down the KMT’s historical commitment to eventual reunification with China, promoting instead Taiwanese national identity that undermined Beijing’s claim that there is only one “China”. The First Constitution Revision (1991) President Lee proposed a National Affairs Conference to achieve a breakthrough. This special conference was taken place under the President’s support and composed of the intellectuals and elites from different realms such as politicians, businessmen and scholars. Since there was no constitutional provision for such a conference, it was considered as an extra-constitutional assembly. Therefore, the main goal of this conference is to sum up the opinions of participants to be used as advice. The National Assembly meeting to enact the first amendments was convened April 8-24, 1991 and resolved both to end the ‘Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion’ and to enact the to enact the ten Additional Articles. These articles were mainly concerned with the electoral process for public representatives and with the authority of the President. In the end, the two President Lee’s proposes were carried out by the first National Affairs Conference. First, he sought to preserve the legitimacy of representative government and to make the substantive revision of the constitution. Secondly, he intended to remove the Temporary Provisions from the constitution and to normalize the legal system. The Second Revision (1992) According to the aforementioned first revision, an election was held in December 1991 to wholly re-elect the National Assembly. The result was that the KMT won the three-quarters of the seats necessary to realize constitutional reform. Thus, the KMT was in a position to revise the constitution on its own. The main goal of this second stage was to revitalize the constitutional system of Taiwan but there was no consensus within the KMT this time on the reform, especially on how to elect the President, namely by direct or indirect means. In the KMT there were the mainstream and conservative groups which have different concerning the future of Taiwan. So it is not only a debate over the topic for the political reform but a competition between these two factions. In addition, it referred to the roles of the National Assembly: the election of the President and constitutional reform. And of course Assembly members intended to keep their position and privileges in the following negotiations for constitutional revisions. In the end, the issue was postponed, because no concrete decision was reached by the second session of the National Assembly in April, 1992. Therefore, a third and fourth revision became necessary. The Third Revision (1994) The most crucial feature of the third constitutional revision was the provision for the direct election of the President. It was decided to adopt a procedure whereby the President would be elected by a relative majority of votes cast by the electorate only who with Taiwanese citizenship. Besides of the issue of the presidential election, the third revision eliminated the process by which the Prime Minister must sign for presidential appointments approved by the Legislature. This move makes relations between the President and the Prime Minister become more difficult. Somehow it strengthens the Presidential system as a backstage driving force. It was also decided that the members of the National Assembly would elect their own chair man and vice-chairman. After the third session of the constitutional revision, elections were taken place for the Governor of the Provincial Government of Taiwan and the Mayoralties of Taipei and Kaoshiung in December 1994. The opposition party’s candidate, Chen Shui-Bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the Mayoralty of Taipei. His triumph created the significant landmark not only for the opposition parties but for the democratization of Taiwan. The Forth Revision (1997) The fourth was put into practice in 1997 after Lee Teng-Hui won the presidency with landslides of popular votes in the first direct presidential election held in 1996. At the same time, National Assembly elections were taken place and the number of KMT candidates who gained the seat of representation became obviously declined. The KMT’s representation fell from 239 to 183 seats, while the DPP’s rose from 56 to 99 seats, and the New Party increased from 3 to 46 seats. Taiwan has started a new era in which the government has to deal with the public affairs of an official or unofficial alliance and may be overthrown or empowered by election results. Since the KMT didn’t achieve the majority in the National Assembly, to revise the constitution alone became impossible for the KMT. The Lee Teng-Hui administration planned to hold the National Development Conference in order to develop a consensus on constitutional revision. In the end of December, 1996, the National Development Conference was held at the President’s office and consisted of the representatives of three political parties, and 170 people from the business, bureaucratic and academic circles. The agenda for the conference was divided into three topics: ‘Constitutional system and party politics’, ‘Cross-strait relations’ and ‘Economic development’. The Conference was based on the subcommittee and a general assembly, and its aim from the view of the President’s office was to provide an occasion for a genuine debate not for the expression of a party line. The conference resulted in 192 points of consensus, which had no legal power but could be used as political pact, said the chairman Huang Kuo-Hui. Through the National Development Conference political parties would mutually discuss the important national issues of Taiwan not only about the constitutional revision but the politico-economic system with the domestic transition from an authoritarian to a democratic system and the international shift from a Cold War world to a post-Cold War world. In addition, transition to a democracy brought the issue of cross-strait relations as well as the national identity as a result of the delicate ‘one-China’ policy. It is said that this Conference prompted the Lee administration to face and tackle these onerous issues. Hardships of the Constitutional Revisions During the session of the last Constitutional Revision, the Lee administration had tried to deal with the serious questions that the original ROC Constitution was unable to solve related to the relationship between the President and the Legislature, and the relations between the Central Government and the Provincial Government of Taiwan. Besides that, Lee also needed to avoid the military threat of the PRC and maintain the steady relations between Cross-strait as realizing the democratization in Taiwan. To the first question, the ruling party- KMT and the opposition parties – DPP and the New Party started to discuss and decide which political system- a presidential or cabinet one will be adopted. At the beginning, the debate fell into disorder, there was no consensus reached in the first meeting. In the following session after intensely arguing on public the ruling KMT and the opposition parties eventually reached an agreement. They agreed to enact the following provisions:  The President will appoint the Prime Minister. Legislature’s authorization is not required.  The Legislature can issue a vote of no-confidence against the Prime Minister if more than one-half of the total-member vote is achieved.  If the no-confidence vote is carried against the Prime Minister, the President can dissolve the Legislature. And plus the elimination of the of parliamentary approval the adoption of an effective constitutional provision permitting a vote of no-confidence and dissolution of the Legislature will have a more positive effect on the future of Taiwanese politics. In this way, it can make the Executive and Legislative branches more intensive. The abilities of the political parties will decide whether such intensification may bring a good advantage or not. To the second question- the suspension of the Provincial Government of Taiwan, both of the ruling KMT and the opposition parties came to an agreement to decide that the Provincial Government of Taiwan and the provincial assembly of Taiwan would be phased out since on 20th of December, 1998. To sum up, the four constitutional revisions have established the legitimacy of “the ROC in Taiwan” and made clear the areas of national sovereignty. The National Assembly became permanent constitutional convention and was ironically called “ten-thousand-year Congress” by critics. Since that, the National Assembly was suspended in 2000 and fully defunct in 2005. Its parliamentary power had gradually transferred to the Legislative Yuan during the session of the constitutional revisions. Nowadays Situation in Taiwan (From 2000 till now) -Domestic Political Status and Cross-strait Relations In Taiwan the two main parties, the proindependence DPP and the Chinese Nationalist KMT, play the important roles on the political stage. The opposition parties have ability to function freely. The rest parties as following are: the New Praty founded in 1993, the People’s First party in 2000, the Taiwan Solidarity Union, and so on. In 2000, Taiwan democratization preceded into a new page. The DPP candidate Chen Shui-Bian defeated the KMT candidate Lien Chen in the March 2000 presidential election. Chen’s victory ended 55 years of the KMT ruling government. This peaceful transition of power was soon followed by the political challenges particularly of the Cross-strait issue to the President Chen. Therefore, in Chen’s inauguration speech mentioned that his government would not declare independence if Taiwan were not attacked in order to ease Beijing’s anxiety about the whole new ruling power. Although he outlined a new approach depart from the delicate statist “One China” policy, he would also try to pursue the economic cooperation between Cross-Strait. On December 28, 2000 the Beijing accepted Taiwan‘s proposal to open two offshore island to goods and passengers from the mainland and to allow island residents to travel directly to the Chinese mainland. In December 2001 elections the KMT lost the control of the parliament for the first time. The DPP won 87 of parliament’s 225 seats, up from 70 in 1998, while the KMT took 68, down from 123. And the rest 60 seats were taken by the People’s First Party, the Taiwan Solidarity Union and a minor party. During Chen’s presidency, the most important issues which have influenced the domestic politics and the society: economic linkages with China and the question of Taiwanese independence. The Chen administration did not cope with them well. Besides that, in 2007 the leading figures of the DPP got involved in a series of corruption scandals which tarnished their reputation. Thus, the opposition KMT took power after winning the legislative and presidential elections in January and March 2008, respectively. It was believed that the KMT’s victory could help break the stalemate with Beijing that has prevented Taiwan and China from building direct air and shipping links. The outgoing president Chen Shui-Bian of the DPP was indicted on the corruption charges, as were other members of his administration. In November 2011 Chen was sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison on the corruption charges, though some observers raised concerns over flaws comparing with the handling of his and the other corruption cases. Municipal elections were held in the end of 2011, the ruling KMT won three of the five mayoral posts at stake, and the opposition DPP gained the other two. So far the KMT ruling government continued to improve the relations with China, so the economic cooperation became more intensive than before. Under this condition, at the end of 2012, the national media regulator was evaluating a China-friendly enterprise groups’ bid to purchase a country’s second largest cable television company. Academics and civil society groups alarm that the merger could destroy the diversity of Taiwan’s media environment. In the upcoming years, the government is required to cope with the relations between Cross-strait more carefully. As intensifying the economic linkages with China, the government needs to maintain the nation sovereignty and avoid the individual political system from the potential destruction from Beijing.
Conclusion Within a mere span of recent ten years, Taiwan took a remarkable step into the democratization. During 12 years as the President, Lee Teng-Hui tried his best to achieve a democratic transition through realizing a series of constitutional revision. At last, the Lee administration had implemented the four consecutive constitutional reforms step by step from 1991 to 1997. However there’re still some problems unsolved in the Constitution of the Republic of China especially with the Independence and the areas of ROC. These reforms aimed at rationalizing the distribution of power between the legislative and the executive functions are necessary, but the negative result was that it makes the constitutional amendment become more difficult, especially when the government intends to disguise the depth of problems. In 2000, Taiwan’s democratic wave reached the crest when the opposition party DPP captured the presidency. Since then, the momentum of change has slowed. Although Taiwan’s democratization is far from the perfect, it does not stop proceeding. As the worst treatment of the authoritarian era and the realization of the premier reforms to democratization fade into the past, Taiwan has the new challenges and the other thorny issues to face and deal with. To the domestic affairs, the government is required to tackle the problems with the Taiwanese identity and the transitional justice of the atrocities during Martial Law era. In addition, the corruptions are also waiting to be dissolved. To the international diplomacy, the government has to maintain the peace not only with China but with the U.S. and the neighboring countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Philippines and etc. Comparing with the external problems, the internal ones will be more manageable and easier to be handled.

Note

1. Taiwan’s democratization – A Critical Test for the International Dimensions Perspective, Laurence Whitehead, Taiwan Journal of Democracy, Vol. 3, No. 2: 11-32
2. Taiwan’s Best Case in Democratization, Shelley Rigger, Orbis, pp 285-292, Spring, 2004
3. Taiwan’s Democratization : Summary, Hung-Mao Tien/ Chyan-Jeng Shiau ,World Affairs, Vol. 155, No. 2, pp. 58-61
4. Democratic Transition and Consolidation in Taiwan, Shelley Rigger, American Enterprise Institute (Washington DC), November 10, 2011
5. Constitutional Reform and Democratization in Taiwan, Yoshiyuki Ogasawara, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, December, 1998
6. Transition without Justice or Justice without History : Transitional Justice in Taiwan, Nai-Teh Wu, Taiwan Journal of Democracy Vol. 1, No.1: 77-102

Another sources

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3. https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A6%AA%E6%B0%91%E9%BB%A8 4.https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E5%9C%98%E7%B5%90%E8%81%AF%E7%9B%9F http://www.tsu.org.tw/ (Taiwan Solidarity Union)
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