In this part, we're going to talk about central-local relations. Although Taiwan is not big, but you also have local-central new relations to deal with constitutionally. In some way, we call that vertical separation of powers. While you have that horizontal separation of powers among political branches, how to divide the power and how to resolve the dispute between central government and local governments, there's also the job of the constitution. The constitution stipulates that Republic of China is a unitary system. That is, it's not a federal system. It's a unitary system and the central government enjoy tremendous power, financially or economic development, not to mention national security and others. But when the constitution was brought to Taiwan, and it come to implement in Taiwan in a context of democratic transition, this central-local relation become extremely interesting. Over last decades, we have many presidents chosen from the mayor of Taipei City. President Chen, president Ma, we know they belong to different political party, DPP and KMT. Both of them graduated from the National Taiwan University in law department. But here's one element that is they all serve as the mayor of Taipei City. The general premises of that is that the mayor of Taipei City is subject to election. That means President Chen Shui-bian and President Ma Ying-jeou, they all entered into the race for the mayor of Taipei previously. But it doesn't mean that mayor of Taipei City has been elected through the process of democratization because Taipei City is considered the directory control city by the central government. In the Constitution, we call that, 直轄市 or 院轄市. When we say that yuan, remember we say that yuan means executive yuan. That means that you lead the executive branch. When a city is directory control by the Executive Yuan, what does that mean? That means that a central government is going to appoint the mayor of the city. You work out exactly like that in the past. That brings us to the structure of the constitution about our local-central relations. Why in Taiwan? We need to divide two constitutions, that is, constitution on the book that regulate somehow central-local relations in a dramatic way based on a big China. And then the other constitution, that is constitution in practice. Constitutional order while practice in Taiwan through that democratization, how they evolve to deal with the central-local relations when the territory shrink to such an extent. So they put hsien (county), send one representative to National Assembly. That's how our National Assembly used to have members like a couple of thousands. That's central-local relations regulated by the constitution. In the constitution, there's also one very special device, that is the directory control mega city 院轄市 or 直轄市. The backdrop to that is that since the inception of the republic, it has been disintegrated. The whole China, had not been integrated or United. War loss, everywhere. So you have no localism, warlord, everywhere. While doing constitution, you have to deal with, that localism issues. The constitution took a high profile, to deal with central-local relations. Can you imagine the Constitution put two chapters, to deal with local central relations. Two chapters ranging from the allocations of power to the dispute resolution, and also are very clear about how the Hsien is going to operate. How do Provinces going to operate, and how Central Government is going to operate, and how to interact with each order. This is the original Constitution. At the same time, very interesting, I can't find anything so similar, in other constitutional text. That is the Constitution, provides four provisions. Provision 107 to 110. 107, 108, 109, and 110. Four articles to deal with, the allocation of powers among this, their government. This, for example, Article 107, regulate the central government shall have the power of legislation, and administration. This is the exclusive national government's power. Whereas, Article 108, says the Central Government shall have the power of legislation, and administration, but they can delegate that to the Provisional government, or Hsien government. This is the second type of allocation of power. The third will be, the provinces will have the power of legislation and administration, but the province can still delegate to the Hsien. Article 110, is always the Hsien's power only. Not only that, you have so many items, listed there, police, household, security, public health. So we have detailed regulation in the constitution. I have never seen any constitution, that has such detailed regulation about central-local relations. We know why because China is such a big country, and lots of disintegration and localism going on. The Central Government through the constitution would like to have, a comprehensive regulation over the structure of the whole country in relation, to all local governments. This is the basic structure. When this basic structure, move abroad to Taiwan, and how it used to be called a province. Where is the Central Government? The Central Government will be put on the top of the Taiwan Province, where are Hsiens and others? Like, put Fujian Province to oversee Lianjiang, and other Kinmen, Matsu and others like that. But in any way primarily under the umbrella of the Taiwan provincial government, and you also have province. When the national government, move to Taiwan, relocate to Taiwan, they had to set up Taipei as a Capital. Taipei becomes the Capital. There is Capital, and also Taipei become, the directly-controlled to Mega-city. [inaudible]. Then followed by Kaohsiung, because Kaohsiung's population reached one million. It's eligible to become a directly-controlled Mega-city. The Mayor got a chance to sit, in the cabinet meetings. That's the practice. Well, of course, there are problems about implementation in the very beginning, although the constitution guarantees local elections. But because of the martial law and authoritarian rules, the local election was not completely open, and it was gradually introduced. Taiwan Province is a province but whether the province is subject to election, you would have to wait until some constitutional revision to begin that. Taiwan Province is such an embarrassing status in Taiwan. When our government is here, it has something to do with administrative efficiency, of course. It also has larger to do with the representation to the world. Is Taiwan a country or just a province? If you have built up the legitimacy of Taiwan Province, then the mayor of the Taiwan Province may represent Taiwan, in other words international or diplomacy internationally. But in fact, it's not going to be in that way. Then, of course, in 1997, with that constitutional revision. We abolished the layer of the government. So there's no election of the Taiwan Provincial governor or council members. But all the local elections gradually open, and it began with the second constitutional revision that happened in 1992. In 1992, the constitution authorized the local legislature to enact self-government law, and in so doing, cleared the barrier created by the Constitutional Court Interpretation 260. The Constitutional Court used to limit the power of the local government. And then this constitutional revision cleared that barrier. It's a way to promote local autonomy through constitutional revision. And then the central financial power was pretty much relaxed to allow local government to have more power in financial matters. This round of constitutional revision also provided that the provisional government may have the election for a governor, and municipal mayors could also be elected. With this constitutional revision, there are barriers of legislation coming up to implement that version of local-central relations in Taiwan, not withstanding the constitutional regulation. There are several laws like, for example, the Self-Governance Act for Provinces and Counties [inaudible] or Self-Governance Act for Special Municipalities [inaudible] They separate that into two laws. There is also a general law, Local Government System Law And also that provides the election for a municipality, particularly directly controlled mega-city including Taipei, and Kaohsiung for the election of mayors. Also trickled down to township and communities like 鄉鎮、鄉鎮市, and communities 里 even 鄰 they also have local governments, but only central government and [inaudible] , a mega-city. Those enjoy the autonomous status. This evolution has been very different from the constitutional stipulation, and these several laws in nature actually is quasi-constitutional law. When we say quasi constitution, these are statutes. These are not constitution, but they perform the function of constitution. It seems to be the amendment to the constitutional provision about central-local relations through the law in Taiwan. They need to do that in order to move on. Because local and central governance needs to move on. Not with standing in a very rigid constitutional stipulation.
