BOOK REVIEWS

Jean-Pierre Cabestan: Le système politique de Taiwan

Jean-Pierre Cabestan’s latest work on Taiwanese political institutions will most definitely become a basic reference tool for the French-speaking world. Whilst being succinct—in line with the policy of the encyclopaedic collection of the Presses Universitaires de France (PUF)—this book brings together essential and fully up-to-date information for readers to acquaint themselves not only with the island’s history, but also to become au fait with the jurisdiction of such and such an assembly or the role of such and such a committee. A sinologist and lawyer with an in-depth knowledge of Taiwanese political life as a result of having recently spent nearly five years in Taipei, the current Director of the Centre d’Etudes Français sur la Chine contemporaine (French Centre for Research on Contemporary China) could not have been a better choice to conduct this overview. Indeed, with its clear and accurate presentation, this volume in the Que sais-je? series, goes over all the stages of constitutional reform and the evolution of political forces of a country that cannot be parcelled up in any easy categorisation by dint of the fact of its international non recognition. Furthermore, democratisation is set in the context of the island’s political trajectory in order to enable non specialists to better understand the importance of recent changes. The first part—“The formation of the Taiwanese political system”—in fact recounts the history of Taiwan from the time of aboriginal settlement until the December 1998 elections, two chapters dividing the pre- and post-1949 periods. The second part—“The present political system”—explains the functioning of the reformed nationalist regime in three chapters devoted respectively to institutions, political forces and what the author calls political life (elections and civil society).

Jean-Pierre Cabestan’s contribution is particularly apposite when he describes the “institutional patchwork” (p. 64), that is the reformed institutions. First, he gives an account of the drawing up of the 1947 Constitution, then goes over the content of the four series of constitutional amendments (“additional articles”) adopted in 1991, 1992, 1994 and 1997 which led to the setting up of a semi-presidential system. In the second part of this chapter on institutions, the author reviews the central organs of the state by stressing the presidency of the Republic—“corner-stone of Taiwanese political institutions”. Through the accuracy of the data gathered, these pages provide a didactically very useful presentation of the organisation of public authorities under the constitution, of their respective jurisdiction and influence. In fact, we are dealing with a particularly complex organisational chart since these institutions had been designed for a country larger than the USA and in accordance with a system conceived by Sun Yat-sen, the so-called five power system, which had the goal of reconciling tradition and modernity. This system has simply been reformed without having always maintained consistency in the uneven course of constitutional revision.

The following chapter is devoted to political forces, that is to the main parties, such as the Kuomintang (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party and the New Party. As for the section on institutions, a comprehensive table is provided in a minimum number of pages. Beyond giving a minute description of the internal organisation of the diverse groupings, Jean-Pierre Cabestan refers for instance to the question of the privileges enjoyed by the KMT, whether they be economic—“probably the wealthiest party in the world” (p. 95)—, political (the special links with the upper echelons of the administration, the military and the media) or social (under this heading the author tackles the Nationalist Party’s relations with leading industrialists).

In the final chapter on “Taiwanese political life”, there is an examination both of elections—the electoral systems, the organisation of ballots and the behaviour of voters—and what the author calls “the slow ascent of civil society” with the sidelining of the political role of the army, but also the KMT’s residual hold on the media, a close interrelation of the political and economic spheres, the incomplete rule of law, the relative weakness of civil society, regional divisions deeper than the conflicts of identity and, finally, the threat of mainland China’s irredentist claims hanging over the country’s future.

One cannot expect a volume in the Que sais-je? series to tackle in detail all the questions raised by democratisation. Nonetheless, a general work can suggest some lines for further reflection and related issues. In this respect, the author places his entire study within a twofold analytical framework. First of all, he refers to the works of the “transitologists” (G. O’Donnell, P. Schmitter, L. Whitehead, J. Linz, A. Stepan and A. Przeworski). In point of fact, change has taken place in Taiwan without any radical break, as a very considerable institutional continuity links today’s democratic regime with yesterday’s authoritarian one, and which has been spearheaded by the moderate elites. Indeed, at the end of a chronological presentation of the reform process, Jean-Pierre Cabestan concludes that, beyond the initial role played by Chiang Ching-kuo, “the very process of interaction between the Taiwanese reformers in the KMT and those opposition forces that are tolerated has favoured the beginning of a negotiated democratisation” (p. 62, author’s emphasis).

Next, dealing with the inner workings of Taiwanese political life, the explanation proposed is generally culturalist in character, even if this is not a matter of methodological bias as such. From the introduction, the author states that “still rare are the culturalist approaches to a political reality which, it is true, clearly goes beyond mere “institutional copying” of Western models with which many Third World countries content themselves” (p. 9). To our way of thinking, not only should one be wary about any approach that makes the Western bureaucratic state a simple “import” into the societies of the South (1), but Jean-Pierre Cabestan himself refers later in the work to “the great plurality of Chinese political culture and the profound changes that this underwent, in the late 19th century, through intense contact with Western ideas” (p. 61). Furthermore, he concludes the book by surmising that Taiwan is “living proof of the compatibility between the Western democratic model and the Confucian value system” (p. 125). The fact remains that the culturalist tool is, on a number of occasions, called upon as the main factor of explanation, in a rather abrupt manner, probably due to the constraints imposed by the small size of volumes in the Que sais-je? series. Thus the author judges that for “cultural reasons pertaining to the particular importance of relations of mutual interest and exchanges of services (guanxi) as well as to the complexity of social obligations, joining a political movement does not in Taiwan (or in China for that matter) have the quasi-religious character that it often does in the West” (p. 104), which would explain the deep factionalism and the great lack of discipline of the members of the Taiwanese political parties. In the section “An incomplete rule of law”, the writer regards “the traditional reticence of the Chinese to settle their conflicts by judicial means” (p. 119) as contributing to the slowing down of the consolidation of such rule of law. In turn, the less than perfect nature of the legal constitution of the state is thought to be one of the causes of the relative weakness of civil society, but which would be principally related “to other reasons which are more cultural again, in particular to the ‘localist communitarianism’ and to the ‘family individualism’ of the Chinese” (p. 120). Such assertions are no doubt over simplistic, as they put undifferentiated and disjoint groupings in the same basket and implicitly fail to take into account the multiple processes of hybridisation at work. Likewise, clearly one cannot downplay either the corruption or even criminalisation of a not insignificant part of the Taiwanese political world. But, by the same token, the close interrelation of the political and economic spheres cannot be turned into a phenomenon peculiar to East Asia—the author is referring here explicitly to Lucian W. Pye (p. 118)—as is proven a contrario by contemporary events in France, among others one could mention.

On the other hand, there is reason to regret that the national question—the principle of China’s unity, which during the authoritarian period justified the institutional status quo, like today the non-recognition of Taiwan internationally and the threat that Peking’s irredentist policy has hanging over the island’s future—does not occupy the space it should. Treated as one variable among many, this issue is classified last of the five main characteristics of Taiwanese political life brought out by the author (p. 121). It could, however, have served as the focus of a more systematic discussion of the reform process. Thus, in the historical overview of the democratisation process (first part), the changes both internal and external alternate without the close interconnection between the reform of institutions and the aggiornamento of Taipei’s foreign policy, more specifically its mainland policy, being clearly brought out. Had this been done, apparently contradictory data would have more easily fallen into place. With respect to the characteristics of Taiwanese political parties, for instance, the author writes very appropriately:

The first is the great weakness in ideological differences setting them apart. The question of the relations with the People’s Republic and the island’s future seems to constitute the only possible demarcation line between these groups. Yet even such an assertion is misleading in so far as consensus on the de facto independence of Taiwan, the maintaining of the status quo in the Strait (baochi xianzhuang) and finally the existence of the Republic of China as a sovereign state, is not only strong but tending to broaden its base. This development could over time favour the appearance of a right-left opposition, albeit more of an American than European kind (p.104).

Yet, Jean-Pierre Cabestan had previously indicated that it is very much around the national question that partisan splits are formed: “Not only have none of the 80 or so other political parties managed to break through, but for the time being any group that has tried to place itself outside of the independence-reunification axis has quickly been relegated to oblivion” (p. 88). Meanwhile, he puts the community vote and the reunification-independence axis at the top of the list of the eight main factors making up the Taiwanese vote (pp. 110-111).

Nonetheless, through the accuracy of the information it contains, Le système politique de Taiwan will henceforth constitute an indispensable reference work. It is to be hoped that Jean-Pierre Cabestan may in the not too distant future produce a companion piece to this Que sais-je? volume—a more substantial study with the same publisher, just as he did a few years back, for the People’s Republic (2).