國立臺灣大學政治科學論叢

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

Arend Lijphart divides democracy into two patterns, majoritarian democracy and consensus democracy, and sorts out the different kinds of political institutions into these two patterns. Lijphart’s analysis is highly valued and praised by scholars of comparative politics; however, semi-presidentialism was unfortunately omitted in his analysis. This paper tries to fill the gaps in Lijphart’s analysis where semi- presidentialism is neglected, studying how to fully embody the spirit of consensus democracy under semi-presidentialism. This paper argues that consensus democracy will be adequately realized under semi-presidentialism if the president’s and parliament’s powers can be balanced, the president’s and prime minister’s powers can be shared, and the coalition cabinet formed by each and every major party in the parliament can be established. Such triangular relationship between the president, parliament and cabinet can be built through the following institutional arrangements. Proportional representation or mixed-member proportional system should be adopted for the parliamentary election. The presidential electoral system should be a runoff vote or an alternative vote. The parliament should have the power of consent over the appointment of the prime minister, and the president should not have the power to proactively dissolve the parliament or the power to remove the prime minister. Furthermore, the prime minister should be provided with the comprehensive power of countersignature, and the scope of authority for the president and prime minister should also be clearly defined.