ASSESSING TAIWAN's SECOND TRANSITION OF POWER:
A turning point in Taiwan's political development?

A Comparative Analysis of the Executive-Legislative Relationships under the Minority Government in Taiwan and Mexico (2000-2008)

Sophia Hsiao-Yun Yu
Associate Professor, Chinese Culture University

Abstract
Under the “Third Wave” democratization, Taiwan and Mexico, two once one-party authoritarian states, respectively completed their first political power turnover in 2000. With gradual democratic transformations, both evolved into the period of “minority government,” under which the president’s party failed to take half of the legislative seats. Given the fact that Taiwan and Mexico share quite some similarities of political and democratic development, this paper, by using comparative analysis, attempts to probe into the executive-legislative maneuvers and interactions under the “minority government” framework in both Taiwan and Mexico. It intends to compare and analyze such indicators as: the number and percentage of proposed legislations by the two branches and their approvals; the operation and results of the presidential veto power as seen in Mexico and the executive reconsideration power in Taiwan; and the political parties’ attitudes towards major controversial proposals or legislations, from which to explore and understand the interactive relationships between the executive and legislative branches of the two governments. It anticipates developing some theoretical perspectives on the two one-party authoritarian regimes’ executive-legislative interactions under minority government contexts to hopefully provide meaningful references for newly democratized countries.

Keywords: Minority Government, Divided Government, the Executive-Legislative Relationships, Taiwan, Mexico

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