Democracy-driven Transformation to Regulatory State: The Case of Taiwan

民主化做為動力的管制國家變遷:以台灣為例

就像其他新興民主國家一樣,台灣已從發展型國家轉型成注重程序理性與實質法控制的管制國家。然而,在台灣發展脈絡的背景與全球趨勢下,此深層轉變的動力及其結果需要更進一步地探討與解釋。本文認為台灣從發展國家轉變為管制國家,並非源自於明確的國家政策,而是民主化不可迴避的結果。在1990年代民主化浪潮及相應的國際壓力下,台灣引進一些重要立法,促使其轉型為管制國家。民主化所促成的立法,使管制事務上的司法控制成為可能。更重要的是,台灣在管制國家的轉型上表現出了一定的的程序導向,而此表現在重要立法與法院判決上。此種程序導向的特徵有助於對話性管制模式的發展。本文認為只有在更開放及重視民主管制的情況下,才能避免司法化的風險。

Like some other new democracies, Taiwan has transformed from a developmental state to a regulatory state with increasing procedural rationality and substantive legal controls. However, the driving forces for such a profound change and its consequences remain to be explored further and addressed against the backdrops of Taiwan's development context as well as the global trend. This paper argues that the shift to regulatory state took place in Taiwan not as a result of explicit government policies, but as an inevitable consequence of democratization. Major legislation facilitating the forming of a regulatory state was introduced in the backdrop of democratization in the 1990s in parallel with certain pressures from international network. Increasing judicial controls over regulatory matters were made possible by legislative enactments triggered by democratization. More importantly, institutional constraints on the regulatory state bears strong procedural nature as demonstrated by both major legislation and court rulings. This process-centric feature enjoys the potency of developing a dialectic regulatory environment that may possibly prevents the risk of judicialization while reinforcing more open and deliberative democratic governance.