Free Lectures》Democracy Indigestion Stop Prescribing Indiscriminate Tonics

Legislative Yuan Han Kuo-yu criticized Taiwan's democracy for having "kidney deficiency" and requiring Liuwei Dihuang Pills, and listed the Executive Yuan's failure to countersign and the general recall as symptoms of democratic weakness. However, Liuwei Dihuang Pills also depends on your physical constitution, and those with indigestion should not take it by themselves. Before Dr. Han prescribes medicine, does he first confirm that he has the right disease?

Legislative Yuan Hanguo-yu criticized Taiwan's democracy for "kidney deficiency", but people with indigestion should not take Liuwei Dihuang Pills by themselves. The picture shows Han Guoyu. (File photo)

The problem facing Taiwan's democracy may not be a lack of tonic, but indigestion. The Kuomintang group proposed to increase the government’s planned general distribution of 10,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan. It is easy to add more money, but how to raise new expenditures and whether it will crowd out other policies cannot be answered by voting alone. On the one hand, they asked the government to spend more money, and on the other hand, they deleted the budget altogether. There were even disputes over how to connect the deletions. Finally, they asked the Executive Yuan to swallow them all. Is this what Hanguo-yu calls "democracy's kidney deficiency", or is the Legislative Yuan causing democracy to suffer from indigestion?

Congress has the power to review the budget and make policy proposals, but there are still limits to the authorization of public opinion. Those who announced the increase achieved political results, but it was the Executive Yuan that assumed financial and implementation responsibilities. If we just double the dosage of medicine without asking how the government will bear the burden, and then all implementation difficulties are regarded as administrative laziness, supervision will become a shirking of responsibility.

What's more serious is that there was a problem with the prescription, and there should have been a mechanism to check it. When there were only eight justices left, the Legislative Yuan raised the threshold for participation in deliberation to 10, bringing the constitutional review to a standstill. The relevant provisions were later ruled unconstitutional, but the failure of checks and balances that had been caused cannot be written off.

Congress not only prescribes drugs for the government, it can also change the rules so that the mechanism for checking prescriptions does not work properly. Where does such power lie? Pictured is the Legislative Yuan. (File photo)

Congressional majorities not only prescribe drugs for the government, they can also change the rules so that the mechanism for checking prescriptions does not work properly. Where does such power lie? If democracy only needs to pass the third reading, it will have to act accordingly, and even the review of whether it is legal and constitutional will be hindered, and majority rule may become a tool to evade checks and balances.

Therefore, the general recall should not be diagnosed as a disease of democracy. When congressional majorities expand their powers and make the review mechanism dysfunctional, voters have reason to hold them accountable through recall. Electing a democratic representative does not mean that we can only take pills from now on; whether to withdraw the authorization should also be decided by voters through voting.

What Taiwan's democracy needs is to restrain the power that crosses the line and allow the people's representatives to be tested by voters. If Han Guoyu only saw the general recall but failed to see how the majority in Congress caused the failure of checks and balances, I am afraid that Liuwei Dihuang Pill was prescribed wrongly from the moment he felt his pulse.

(The author is a commentator)