Mr Hopong To 杜浩邦, Dissertation Fellow, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, and PhD Candidate at the Australian National University

Date: Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Time: 10:00 – 12:00
Location: Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (No 4, Alley 17, Lane 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei 106 Taiwan)
Moderator: Dr Wei Mei-Chuan 魏玫娟, Assistant Professor at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies, National Chengchi University
Discussant: Dr Wu Yu-shan 吳玉山, Distinguished Research Fellow and Director at the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica

Itinerary:

10:00 – 10:10 Opening remarks by Dr Wei Mei-Chuan
10:10 – 11:00 “Policymaking in Semi-presidential Democracies: The Case of
Budgeting in Taiwan” by Mr Hopong To
11:00 – 11:25 Comments by Dr Wu Yu-shan
11:25 – 12:00 Open discussion with the audience

Please note that this event will be conducted entirely in English.

Semi-presidentialism is where a constitution includes both a popularly elected president and a prime minister (premier) and cabinet who are responsible to the parliament. The emergence of semi-presidential democracies since the “third wave democratization” has attracted increasing scholarly attention on this form of government, but so far the academic literature has focused primarily on typological issues and its impact on democratic stability and consolidation. Much less has been done to investigate how policy is made under this form of constitutional arrangement, and whether it is distinctively different from “pure” presidential or parliamentary democracies. This research attempts to fill this gap, focusing on budget policymaking in Taiwan and Mongolia, two semi-presidential democracies in Asia.

The presentation will report initial findings from field research in these two places. It will start with an overview of the budget preparation and review process in these two countries, followed by a more detailed investigation of the role played by the president, the prime minister and the parliament in the budget process. Issues to be discussed include: does the president actually transcend partisan interests and focus on broader long-term interest of the country, as some advocates of semi-presidentialism envisage? More specifically, what (revealed) preference does the president usually hold towards budget policy? Is there any apparently conflict between the president and the prime minister on budget policy? Finally, do legislators have the tendency to focus more narrowly defined interests at the expense of ever-expanding spending and budget deficits?

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Please RSVP by Monday, April 26, 2010

Date: Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Time: 10:00 – 12:00
Location: Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (No 4, Alley 17, Lane 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei 106 Taiwan)

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Contact Person: Mr Ben Hlavaty 何哲明, program officer
Email: ben@taiwandemocracy.org.tw
Telephone: (02) 2708-0100 ext. 132
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