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Political System
Levels of Government
A flag-raising ceremony at the Presidential Office Building on New Year’s Day 2011 celebrates the first day of the ROC’s centennial year. (Chuang Kung-ju)The national government comprises the presidency and five major branches, or yuan. The local governments at present include those of 14 counties, three autonomous municipalities with the same hierarchical status as counties, and five special municipalities. All heads of local governments are popularly elected to terms of four years.
Of the five special municipalities, Taipei and Kaohsiung have enjoyed the status since 1967 and 1979, respectively. The remaining three—New Taipei City, Taichung and Tainan—were only established in December 2010 as a result of April 2009 revisions to the Local Government Act, which allowed administrative districts to merge or upgrade their status with permission from the central government. Kaohsiung’s administrative area was also expanded December 2010 when adjacent Kaohsiung County was merged into that metropolis.
The Presidency
The president is head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, represents the nation in foreign relations, and is empowered to appoint heads of four branches of the government, including the premier, who heads the Executive Yuan. The president and vice president are directly elected, serve terms of four years and may be re-elected for a second term.
Five Branches of Government
The Executive Yuan currently comprises eight ministries and 29 additional commissions and agencies, whose heads are appointed by the premier and form the Executive Yuan Council, commonly referred to as the Cabinet. The premier bears the overall responsibility for formulating and implementing policies and must report regularly to the Legislative Yuan (Legislature). To further improve administrative effectiveness, the Executive Yuan is undergoing restructuring, reducing the number of Cabinet-level agencies from 37 to 29. The streamlined structure will take effect beginning 2012.
Besides reviewing and enacting legislation, the Legislature conducts hearings on policy matters, examines budgetary bills and monitors government operations. The Examination Yuan is responsible for managing the civil service system, the Judicial Yuan operates the nation’s system of courts, while the Control Yuan is empowered to impeach and censure officials and audit government agencies.
Under the Constitution, neither the president’s appointment of the premier nor the premier’s appointments of ministers are subject to legislative confirmation. However, presidential appointments of the members of the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan, as well as justices of the Judicial Yuan, must be confirmed by the Legislature. Legislators elect the head of the Legislature, or speaker, from among their ranks.
Front, right to left: President Ma Ying-jeou, First Lady Chow Mei-ching, Vice President and Mrs. Vincent Siew, Premier Wu Den-yih and other government officials attend the 2011 New Year’s Day flag-raising ceremony. (Jimmy Lin)Political Parties
Given the key role of the presidency in overall ROC government functioning, the term “ruling party” often denotes which political party occupies the Office of the President. The Kuomintang (KMT)—or the Nationalist Party—held the presidency for over five decades before the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. The KMT regained power by winning the 2008 race. The DPP remains the main political party to challenge the KMT in presidential elections.
The KMT commands about 65 percent of the seats in the Legislature to the DPP’s 30 percent. Other major parties that have had a significant presence in the Legislature in recent years include the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union, the People First Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union.
The ROC Constitution
The ROC Constitution, promulgated on the Chinese mainland on January 1, 1947, did not begin to serve its intended purpose as the foundation for democratic governance and rule of law until after 1987, when martial law was lifted. Since then, it has undergone seven rounds of revision—in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2005—in order to make it more relevant to the ROC’s current condition.
One of the important consequences of these amendments is that since 1991, the ROC government has acknowledged that its powers under the Constitution and ROC laws apply only to areas it controls. The ROC president and legislators, therefore, are elected by and accountable to the people of those areas only.
In accordance with constitutional amendments promulgated in June 2005, the number of seats in the Legislative Yuan has been halved from 225 to 113; the term of legislators has been increased from three to four years; a new “single-seat-district, two-ballot” electoral system has been instituted; and the power to ratify constitutional amendments is now exercised by ROC citizens through referenda.
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