Three Modes of Legislative Behavior in Taiwan and their Potential Impact on China

Due to their distinct legislative purposes, the major policy or institutions chosen, and their operating methods, we can distinguish three modes of legislation: regulatory legislation, rhetorical legislation, and reflexive legislation. Legislators choose different legislative modes according to their own political needs and interests. According to this author’s long term observations and personal participation, there are some distinguishing features in most legislators who are elected by different constituencies in Taiwan: first, most legislators regard regulatory legislation as the best and only way to solve social problems; second, most legislators choose to rely more on administrative agents as the first choice for legal implementation institutions, whether the subject legislation is regulatory or rhetorical. Third, in operation, most legislators emphasize the rhetorical legislative mode to manipulate the media. Last, more and more non-profit and profit interest groups express hopes that legislators might attempt to pass some reflexive legislation. However, most legislators do not understand the interest in reflexive legislation. Due to the gradually increasing and closer interactions between Taiwan and China, especially in the media, that all of the news people in China can see from television news reports, the Chinese people understand that the rhetorical function of the legislative branch in public policy decisions is interested in the welfare of the people, yet, the regulations and rules made by legislators seem to always be disconnected from social practices. This situation will result in people in China viewing the “rule of law” system as being unrealistic.