21. The Constitutional Standard serves as the blueprint for the reform and opening up and peaceful development of various political systems

(1) Comparison of the Constitutional Standard with the provisions of the presidential system

CS Disadvantages of the presidential system

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §8.

1. As the President can be re-elected, he will tend to ignore reforms during his first term, focusing only on securing votes and seeking re-election.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6.

2. The source of public opinion (power) of the President and the congress is different, so when they have their own opinions, it is easy to fall into a constitutional deadlock and a crisis of dual legitimacy.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

3. The President is elected by all people. It is a zero-sum game. The winner takes all and the loser loses all. It can easily lead to political struggles.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

4. The President regards himself as the representative of the whole people, and despises the opinions of congress, political parties and the media. The President appeals directly to public opinion at every turn to produce populist leaders, even at the risk of becoming a dictatorship.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

5. The President has too much executive power, and even has the right to veto the bills passed by the congress. It is easy to form deadlocks and political crises.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §12.

6. While the President has executive power, in addition to influencing the legislation through political parties and ruling the judiciary through the appointment of justices, he also holds both legislative and judicial power.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

7. If the President implements the wrong policy, and the parliament and voters want to remove him from office, they need to exercise the power of impeachment and recall. However, the threshold of impeachment and recall is quite high, and the possibility of passing is relatively low, so it is impossible to show public opinion.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §2.

8. To hold a presidential election regularly costs a huge sum of money, and the political phenomenon of plutocracy is more serious than that of parliamentary countries.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

9. Countries that try the presidential system for the first time to establish democracy have a higher possibility of failure.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §12, §22.

10. Because of the lack of consensus-based democracy, the presidential system government strongly favors majority-based democracy, but for many countries, consensus rather than majority-based democracy is required.

Made by PPP. Source: PPP database, Su Ziqiao, “Inclusive or Assembled?,” Taiwan Democracy Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 4, (Dec. 2013): 1-48.

(2) Comparison of the Constitutional Standard with the provisions of a semi-presidential system

CS Disadvantages of the semi-presidential system

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

1. The dual power structure of the President and the cabinet makes it difficult to distinguish the boundaries of power. If the two powers are launched at the same time, but push in opposite directions, it is very likely to cause political disputes.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §12, §22.

2. Fragmented executive power and the lack of unified leadership may hinder administrative efficiency.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §12, §15.

3. If the President lacks democratic literacy, he may overstep his power and form an obedient cabinet and a minority government according to his own wishes, which will lead to a backlash in congress, the impasse between the executive and the legislature, and the difficulty in promoting governance.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §15.

4. Because of the President does not have the substantive support of the congress, if there is no mechanism to dissolve the congress voluntarily, there will be an executive and legislative deadlock.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

5. The President is directly elected by people, and of course he has the basis of public opinion, but if he wants to appoint the prime minister (PM) directly without the consent of the congress, the President has the right and no responsibility, and the cabinet has the responsibility but not the right.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

6. The President can appoint and replace the PM at any time without the consent of the parliament. The parliament can remove the PM with a motion of no confidence, and the PM becomes the President’s chief of staff and scapegoat.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

7. If the term of office of the President and the PM is inconsistent and the replacement is not at the same time, then there will also be political instability if there is no good interaction between the re-elected leader and the new leader.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §15, §22.

8. In the design of the semi-presidential mechanism, if the PM and the congress do not hold a vote of no confidence due to various reasons, such as their greed for the remaining term of office, or the PM cannot obtain the majority support, etc., the President has the right to dissolve voluntarily, and the congress will become a tool of the President’s manipulation.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §15, §22.

9. If the President has both the power of independent appointment without the consent of congress and the power to dissolve the congress, the power will be extremely inclined to the President, resulting in excessive concentration of the President’s power.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §15, §22.

10. If the President is directly elected by people, he has no independent authority to appoint the PM according to the constitution, but can be certified according to the results of the parliamentary election, and he has no right to dissolve the parliament on his own initiative, then the President will undoubtedly become a vacant power head of state and the actual power of state will lie in the congress.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

11. The semi-presidential system often results in the transfer of power whether the President and the PM belong to the same political party or not. If they belong to the same political party, the President expands his power. If they do not belong to the same political party, the PM’s expansion of power will cause political turbulence and instability.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §12, §22.

12. Under the semi-presidential system, due to the wide range of executive power, the constitution cannot perfectly divide the power between the President and the PM. If any ambiguity happens and overlaps, that will create discords in the exercise of the power of the President and the PM.

Made by PPP. Source: PPP database, Shen Youzhong, “A Comparative Study of the ‘Presidentialization of Power’ in Semi-Presidential Systems,” Taiwan Democracy Quarterly, 2013.

Li Yutong, “Research on the State of Semi-Presidential Administrative Power: Taking Co-governance as an Example,” Donghai Master’s Thesis, 2013.

Su Ziqiao, Wang Yeli, “The Institutional Combination of Electoral and Constitutional Systems: Transnationality in Semi-Presidential Democracies,” Election Research, 2018.

Su Ziqiao, “Inclusive or Assembled?,” Taiwan Democracy Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 4, 2013.

Shi Zhengfeng, The Choice of Constitutional Government Systems in Various Countries, 2019.

(3) Comparison of the Constitutional Standard with the provisions of the parliamentary (cabinet) system

CS Disadvantages of the parliamentary (cabinet) countries

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §12, §18.

1. Before World War II, the challenge of parliamentary democracy on the European continent was the political instability brought about by the minority government and the rise of extremist parties. Non-cooperation between political parties leads to the emergence of “minority parliamentary democracy.” Minority governments often lead to frequent no-confidence votes by parliaments, causing political crises. Extremist forces gain power through democratic systems. Typical examples include dictators in Europe, namely Germany’s Adolf Hitler, Italy’s Benito Mussolini, Spain’s Francisco Franco, and Portugal’s Antonio de Oliveira Salazar are also parliamentary systems.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18, §22.

2. When the opposition party holds the majority in the parliament, a motion of no confidence will inevitably lead to the reorganization of the government or the early dissolution of the parliament, and politics will easily lead to instability. Conversely, the presidential term is fixed and cannot be easily removed.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18.

3. In countries that implement a bicameral system, if the opposition party controls the majority in one of the houses (i.e., a rival parliament), it is easy to cause a constitutional crisis and political deadlock, such as Japan and Australia.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18.

4. When the ruling party occupies an absolute majority in the parliament, it is difficult for the opposition party to check and balance the ruling party, and the opposition party may be marginalized because of too few seats, such as Singapore.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18, §22.

5. The leader of the largest political party is the PM, and it is easy to form a long-term one-party dominance of a certain political party under long-term governance, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Japan.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18, §22.

6. When a multi-party coalition government is formed, the leader of the non-largest party will be the PM. Under the multi-party coalition, the power and influence of the PM is weak, and the government is incapacitated.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

7. It is difficult to professionalize in administration, because the administrative expertise of the members of parliament is not as good as that of the technocrats.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18.

8. In a multi-party coalition government, as long as one of the main political parties withdraws, the government loses the parliamentary majority, which results in being forced to hold an early election, or forming a coalition government with another political party, and thus the political situation is prone to instability.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18.

9. Political power is easy to concentrate, resulting in overlapping executive power and legislative power, and a single political party dominates the political situation. Absolute power creates absolute corruption.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18, §22.

10. The cabinet is composed of the parliamentary majority party, which may cause cover-up by the same party and lack the supervision function of the parliament.

Made by PPP. Source: PPP database, Lu Ruizhong, “Comparison of the Advantages and Disadvantages of the Presidential System and the Cabinet System,” Journal of Political Science, No. 6.

Xiao Wensheng, “On the Coalition Government from the Legal Viewpoint,” National Chung Cheng University Law Collection, No. 1.

Li Huizong, “Coalition Government and Public Opinion Politics,” edited by Su Yongqin, Coalition Government: A New Choice for Taiwan’s Democratic System?.

Chen Ai’e, “Coalition Government and the Principle of Separation of Powers,” edited by Su Yongqin, Coalition Government: A New Choice for Taiwan’s Democratic System?.

(4) Comparison of the Constitutional Standard with the provisions of the directorial system

CS Disadvantage of the committee system

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §22.

1. Responsibilities are not clearly delineated; powers in certain matters are not specific. Members probably will compete for merit and blame each other for failure.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §18.

2. If members have the same status and their powers and responsibilities are similar, it is easy to form conflicts and exclusions from each other.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18.

3. The power is not concentrated, the consensus is slow, and the slow action reduces efficiency and delays opportunity.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §24.

4. It is difficult to keep secrets when many people participate in the discussion.

CS has no such disadvantages.

Refer to CS §6, §18.

5. Many people make decisions, and individuals have different interpretations of the conclusions afterwards, resulting in confusion.

Made by PPP. Source: PPP database, Huang Shang, Administrative Science, published by Zhiguang.

Xiao Fu-yuan, “Direct Democracy, For Consensus, Slow Down,” Commonwealth Magazine.