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Taiwan had no central governing authority until the Dutch colonized the island in the 1620s. The Dutch era lasted only about 40 years, however, and Taiwan became the first place ever to free itself from Western colonial rule. Subsequently, Taiwan was self-governing, but for only a few decades. Taiwan was then made part of China for two centuries, after which it was a colony of Japan from 1895 to 1945.
With the end of World War II, in 1945, Taiwan was again made part of China, but that arrangement lasted for only four years. In 1949, after the Chinese communists had defeated the Nationalist government on the mainland, the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek moved his government, party, and military to Taiwan. Taiwan, as the Republic of China, represented China in the United Nations until 1971, when the People’s Republic (the regime established by the communists on the mainland was called the People’s Republic of China) took the China seat. Subsequently, Chiang’s government quickly lost its international standing.
Chiang’s government—a mix of presidential, parliamentary, and cabinet models—was based on the constitution promulgated in 1947. However, it worked more as a presidential system, since political power resided largely in the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang (KMT), over which Chiang presided. A set of “Temporary Provisions” (to the 1947 constitution, rescinding some parts of it) and an emergency decree (characterized by some as martial law) were enacted in 1948 and 1949, respectively, while the Nationalists were still at war on the mainland. The result was a political system that was democratic in form but not very much so in operation.
The government, the police system, the education system, and the military (at the top) were staffed mainly by mainland Chinese who had moved to Taiwan from China after World War II. Hakkas, a local minority that had migrated centuries earlier, whom the mainland Chinese trusted more than the Fukien Taiwanese, assumed positions in the police forces and the railroads. Fukien Taiwanese, Taiwan’s largest ethnic group, comprising about two-thirds of the population, gradually assumed positions in business and local government.
Democratization in Taiwan was introduced in local politics first and favoured the Taiwanese, especially the Fukien Taiwanese. By the 1980s, Taiwan had made significant strides toward establishing a working democracy. In 2000 the ruling KMT was defeated in the presidential election by the candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), whose base consisted of Fukien Taiwanese. In an election the next year, the DPP won the largest number of seats in Taiwan’s legislature (the Legislative Yuan).
While ethnicity became less of an issue in most respects than it had been in the past—as a result of intermarriage, social change, and urbanization—it continued to play a role in politics, especially during elections. Nevertheless, the KMT regained the presidency and won a majority in the legislature in 2008, on a platform of its being a multiethnic party while advancing better government and ridding politics of the corruption that had plagued the DPP’s Pres. Chen Shui-bian and his party. The DPP rebounded, however, winning both the presidency and a majority of seats in the legislature in 2016.
Constitutional framework
Taiwan’s 1947 constitution, promulgated while the Nationalist government still ruled the mainland as well as Taiwan, created a republican system of government. The document ensured legislative supremacy and granted a considerable degree of autonomy to local governments. The president, originally chosen by the National Assembly until that body was abolished in 2005, is now elected by popular vote and is head of state. The premier, who is appointed by the president, heads the government. Political parties are not mentioned in the document, although it was assumed that they would play a role in politics.
Instead of the three branches of government that are found in most Western governments, the constitution originally provided for five: the executive, legislative, and judicial components plus a Control Yuan (branch of government) and an Examination Yuan. The two additional branches represented organs of government in traditional China that checked on the bureaucracy and that managed functions such as the civil service examinations and promotions. It was thought that a five-branch system would provide better checks and balances than a three-branch system.
The Temporary Provisions of 1948 gave the president emergency powers, banned the formation of new political parties, and suspended the two-term limit for the president. The 1949 emergency decree granted the military, police, and intelligence bodies broad powers. The two measures truncated constitutional rights and effectively prevented the political system from operating democratically. However, local government was not much affected, nor were economic rights curtailed. The emergency decree was terminated in 1987, and the Temporary Provisions were canceled in 1991.
The constitution was amended a number of times during the 1990s. Until then the government, as the Republic of China, effectively had maintained an electoral college with other powers (the National Assembly) that included representatives from each of the mainland provinces. One of the important changes undertaken in the early part of the decade was the start of a process to get rid of those representatives of China in the elected bodies of government, although overseas Chinese (ethnic Chinese living outside Taiwan and China) were allotted special representation. Other measures included reforms of provincial and local government, equal rights for women, safeguards for the handicapped and the aboriginal peoples, changes in the relationship of the branches of government and the role of the premier, and the start of a process to phase out the National Assembly. In 1993 the Control Yuan ceased to be an elected government body, and its functions were truncated. From early 2005 until mid-2008 it did not function at all, because of a deadlock between the president and the legislature over nominees. The branch has since been reinstated, but it is no longer regarded as an important organ of the government. The Examination Yuan likewise is no longer thought of as a major branch of the government, meaning that Taiwan, for all intents and purposes, has a three-branch system.
In 2003 the legislature passed the Referendum Act, which defined that theretofore unused constitutional provision. Referendums were included in subsequent elections, and some caused considerable controversy. In 2005 the constitution was amended to abolish the National Assembly. The process, however, did not resolve the question of the fundamental structure of the government, though other changes and practice have made it more presidential.