independent commission came in after democratization with its surrounding controversies.
A. Creating commissions
The Constitution2 leaves open the organization of the Executive Yuan,
functioning as a cabinet and delegates it to be determined by law.3 The Organic Act of the Executive Yuan, however, fixes it with eight ministries, two commissions and five to seven ministers without portfolio.4 The last revision to this act was in 1980. In the last two decades, many new ministerial positions and government agencies were created by respective organic statutes, and despite several attempts at revising this act, the agenda on government reforms was not put on the table until the first regime change in 2000.
1. Creating commission for representation: the 1940s
The Organic Act of the Executive Yuan stipulates two commissions besides eight ministries: the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission (MTAC) and the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission (OCAC).5 The creation of these two
2 The Republic of China Constitution (hereinafter, ROC Constitution or Constitution) was created in 1947 and brought by the Nationalist (Kuomintang, KMT) government to Taiwan in 1949 with its defeat and retreat. For further details on Taiwan’s constitutional change, see Jiunn-rong Yeh,
Constitutional Reform and Democratization in Taiwan: 1945-2000, in TAIWAN’S MODERNIZATION IN
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE 47-77 (Peter Chow ed, 2002).
3 See Art. 61 of the Constitution. The text of ROC Constitution and its Additional Articles are available
at http://www.president.gov.tw/en/prog/news_release/document_content.php?id=1105498684&pre_id
=1105498701&g_category_number=409&category_number_2=373&layer=on&sub_category=455 (last visited Apr. 10, 2009)
4 There are also two ministerial offices, the Government Information Office and the
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting & Statistics. See Art 3, 4, 5 of the Organic Law of the Executive Yuan.
5 For the English website of MTAC, see http://www.mtac.gov.tw/pages.php?lang=5 (last visited Apr. 8, 2009). For the English website of OCAC, see http://www.ocac.gov.tw/english/index.asp (last visited Apr. 8, 2009).
commissions represented the KMT government’s attempt at representing “the entire China” despite a persistent gap between what it could rule and what it imagined to rule.6
The history of the MTAC may be traced somehow to Qing dynasty.7 Its current existence, however, could be understood only in the context of representation
reinforcing. In 1912, the newly born Republic of China established an agency
regarding Mongolian and Tibetan affairs within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After its relocation to Taiwan, the KMT government elevated the previous agency to the level of ministry to represent -however nominal- a de jure control over Mongolia and Tibet.
The OCAC is the other side of the same token regarding this representational myth created by the KMT government. An agency that dealt with overseas Chinese affairs was already established and subordinated to the Executive Yuan in the 1930s.
It was later elevated to a ministerial level to bestow the KMT government with an image that it was the government of all Chinese people around the globe despite the fact that it could rule only the tiny island of Taiwan. The organizational form of commission also serves a convenient way to invite overseas leaders of respective countries and regions to serve on the commission.
2. Creating commissions for foreign voices: the 1950s & 60s
6 Jiunn-Rong Yeh, The Cult of Fatung: Representational manipulation and Reconstruction in Taiwan, in the PEOPLE’S REPRESENTATIVES:ELECTORAL SYSTEM IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION 23-27 (Graham Hassall & Cheryl Saunders eds., 1997)
7 Qing dynasty created the Court of Colonial Affairs to oversee the relationship of the Qing court to its Mongolian and Tibetan dependencies. During the years of Emperor Kuang Hsu, it was reorganized as the Ministry of Minority Affairs. It then evolved to the current Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission.
Two very distinctive commissions were established as a way to represent foreign voices in the postwar reconstruction of Taiwan. They were the Council for U.S. Aid (CUSA) and the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction (JCRR). Today, the former became the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPA) while the latter became the Council of Agriculture (COA), and both are still ministerial organs despite largely transformed missions.
The CUSA was established as part of the Sino-American Economic Aid
Agreement signed between the Republic of China and the United States in 1948. The agreement was aimed to create stable economic conditions in Taiwan. American financial aid was provided to Taiwan, and the CUSA was created to supervise their appropriation and utilization. Again, its collegial structure made easier for American advisors to participate decision-making processes. After several times of
reorganization8, it evolved as the current CEPD to promote comprehensive national economic development in 1977.
Similarly, the JCRR was established in 1948 in Nanjing as part of an economic agreement between the United States and the Republic of China. Several members of the Commission were American. It came with the KMT government to Taiwan in 1949. As its missions ended and the agreement terminated in 1979, it was reorganized as the Council for Agricultural Planning and Development (CAPD) and later became the current COA.
8 In September 1963, CUSA was re-formed as the Council for International Economic Cooperation and Development (CIECD), which in turn became the Economic Planning Council (EPC) in 1973 for the purpose of strengthening the Executive Yuan's planning and research functions. In 1977, the EPC was merged with the Executive Yuan's Finance and Economic Committee and reorganized as the CEPD.
3. Creating commissions in response to growing social and political demands:
since the 1980s
Government organization tends to expand in response to growing social and political demands. The 1980s witnessed a drastic economic boost and related social and political changes. Demands for health care, environmental protection, consumer protection and social security brought about a sharp increase of statutes as well as regulatory agencies. But as indicated earlier, the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan fixes the number of ministries, and thus generates the difficulty in government reorganization. Nevertheless the law permits the Executive Yuan to set up
commissions if deemed necessary.9 The government took it as a most expedient way and quickly created many commissions to expand its structure in response to growing social demands.
As a result, over the last two decades, nineteen commissions were created through this particular provision. In table 1, commissions such as Financial
Supervisory Commission, Mainland Affairs Council, National Youth Commission, Veterans Affairs Commission, Atomic Energy Council, are all products of this expedient strategic action despite the rather rigid legal framework. Absent a coherent and consistent organizing principle, the governmental organization is evidently confusing and renders inefficiency.