The institution of citizen deliberation on constitutional amending
Date Issued
2006
Date
2006
Author(s)
Lee, Yi-Li
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
The main subject of this thesis is the institution of citizen deliberation on constitutional amending. In order to improve the quality of constitutional amending and strengthen the legitimacy of constitutional referendum, this thesis argues that citizens should have more opportunities to deliberate on constitutional issues before constitutional referendum. To support this argument, this thesis discusses deeply the relation between constitutional amending and citizen deliberation from the following dimensions.
First, theoretically speaking, the relation between constitutional amending and citizen deliberation is a recurrent concern of the theories of Civic Republicanism, Constitutional Moment and Deliberative Democracy, of which Hannah Arendt, Bruce Ackerman and Jürgen Habermas are the most representative scholars respectively. Based on their theories, an argument could be inferred that constitutional amending needs citizen deliberation. These theories also imply some principles of citizen deliberation.
Secondly, there are some examples of citizen discussion on constitutional making and citizen deliberation on constitutional issues. In the part of citizen discussion, the examples are the public participation program on constitutional making in South Africa, the public participation and discussion on constitutional making in Thailand and the efforts of European Convention in European Union for public participation on European constitutional making. As for the citizen deliberation, the main examples are Citizens’ Assembly on reforming the Electoral System in British Columbia, Canada and Deliberative Polls on the Australian constitution. By introducing these institutions, the thesis also analyses the advantages and disadvantages of them.
Thirdly, this thesis deals with the meaning and content of citizen deliberation, the fundamental elements of the institution of citizen deliberation and the choices of the institutions of citizen deliberation on constitutional amending. Those fundamental elements of citizen deliberation are sufficient information, dialogue, publicity, diversity, equality, inclusion. The design of the institution of citizen deliberation should follow these elements. In addition, this thesis also discusses the size of the institution of citizen deliberation. Although having some advantages, a small-sized institution encounters some problems. As a result, this thesis introduces Deliberation Day, a large-sized institution of citizen deliberation and analyzes main issues about it.
After comparing Citizens’ Assembly, Deliberative Polling and Deliberation Day, the thesis also analyzes how to choose an appropriate institution of citizen deliberation in different stages of constitutional amending procedure.Theoretically speaking, Citizens’ Assembly or Deliberative Polling should be adopted in the initiative step of constitutional amending. As a body made up of randomly chosen citizens, they are authorized to initiate and bring the initiative to public referendum. Besides, most of the time issues of Constitutional amending are so important that decision must be made by the people as a whole. Consequently, a more deliberative approach to decision-making is required. Deliberation Day should be held before the constitutional referendum. Citizen will be invited to discuss the issues of constitutional amending with their neighbors at community centers throughout the land.
In conclusion, after the adoption of the 7th constitutional amendment, public referendum on constitutional amending has been a formal procedure in Taiwan. In order to improve the quality of constitution amending and strengthen the legitimacy of constitutional referendum, citizens should have more opportunities to deliberate on constitutional amendment in an informed fashion before constitutional referendum. Adopting Deliberation Day in the procedure makes Taiwanese citizens have more opportunities to reflect on important issues of constitutional amendment. Otherwise, constitutional referendum will become a hollow slogan.
Subjects
憲法修改
公民審議
公民審議機制
公民共和理論
憲法時刻理論
審議民主理論
憲改公民團
審議思辯民調
審議日
公民討論
constitutional amending
citizen deliberation
the institution of citizen deliberation
civic republicanism theory
constitutional moment theory
deliberative democracy theory
citizens’ assembly
deliberative polling
deliberation day
citizen discussion.
Type
thesis
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