The Study of Taiwan’s Leader Accountability through the Evolution of Democratic Constitutionalism
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Chang, Cheng-Liang
Abstract
The purpose of accountability is to lessen the negative effects of governmental governance, avoid the abuse of executive power, protect civil rights and prevent dictatorship. Because modern democratic nations are also regarded as the legal state, representing that constitutional governance has replaced autocratic monarchy, the supervision and accountability mechanism for executive officials, especially the national leader, is a truly important issue. Therefore, this paper first describes the meaning and content of accountability and examines the mechanism and model of accountability in a democratic constitutionalism from the perspective of the development of accountability. Then the vicissitudes of the presidential power is discussed through Taiwan’s constitutional evolution. Taiwan’s current constitutionalism leans towards the dual executive system and the systems of recall, impeachment and resignation of the cabinet uncommonly coexist, but the accountability effects on the national leader are feeble and limited. It is obvious that the design of Taiwan’s constitutional system has grave defects. Lastly, this paper concludes that based on the observation from the viewpoints of various accountability mechanisms (such as bureaucratic, legal, professional, and political accountability mechanisms) and global governance, although the leader accountability design under the current constitutional system is defective, with the advancement of information technology and civil society, professional formal accountability and informal accountability will act as a catalyst and push the democratic force to grow and spread. And the accountability network built with the mass media, law, public opinion and the international society will not only enforce the democratic accountability system but also accelerate the process of political modernization and democratic consolidation.
Subjects
Accountability
Democratic Constitutionalism
Dual Executive System
Type
thesis
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