半總統制下國會議長中立是不可能的任務──以太陽花社運後的立法院院長為實證案例

Speaker's Neutrality Is Impossible under Semi-Presidentialism: A Case Study of the Performance of Taiwan's Legislative Yuan Speaker Following the Sunflower Movement

本文試圖探討半總統制下國會議長的中立角色，議長中立指議長除退出政黨外，在議事上能夠秉公處理，不偏頗任何政黨，扮演維持秩序，確保議事進行順利的角色。從文獻中得知，國會議長能夠中立，是英國的內閣制本身，要求閣揆為決策推動的靈魂人物，議長負責議事順利進行，這樣的分工原型，經過長久演化，國會才逐漸得以建構出讓議長可以中立的制度配套。半總統制國家的兩個次類型，除非是總理－總統制的制度設計，較有內閣制分工原型的制度條件；另一次類型的總統－國會制，則基本不具備這樣的制度條件，再加上半總統制國家制度運作的歷史通常較短，還無法醞釀出這樣明晰的配套；即使是半總統制的代表，總理一總統制的法國，也沒有建構出議長中立的制度設計。我國半總統制運作的時間不長，且運作上較傾向總統－國會制，離內閣制更遠些。本研究的調查發現，立法委員對我國議長的期待與認知，既複雜又混淆。在主觀認知混雜與客制度條件不具足下，我國議長要中立，實在相當困難。但我國既已有要求議長退出政黨之規範，可視為推動議長中立制度化的第一步，如能改革憲政，讓我國向總理－總統制滑動，建置較明確的總理－議長分工機制，或將有助於我國在長遠的未來實踐議長中立之理想。

This article aims to explore the possibility of Speaker neutrality under semi-presidentialism. Speaker impartiality not only means that the Speaker renounces all affiliation with his or her former political party, but also is an impartial presiding officer who maintains order during parliamentary debates. According to the current literature, Speaker impartiality exists primarily in the British Parliamentary system in which the Prime Minister is the key player and leads decision-making, while the Speaker is mainly responsible for maintaining order and chairing meetings. This prototype of division of labor came into existence through a long period of evolution by virtue of gradually designing some institutional mechanisms that can help the Speaker remain neutral. Within the two sub-types of semi-presidentialism, only the premier-presidential regime has institutional characteristics closer to a Parliamentary system and thus has the potential to nurture a neutral Speaker. The president-parliamentary regime does not have similar institutional design to that of the Parliamentary system which favors a neutral Speaker. In addition, the operational history of semipresidential systems has in general been relatively short; therefore, it is hard for them to cultivate the supplementary measures that facilitate Speaker neutrality. Even France, the model of semi-presidentialism, and also a premier-presidential regime, has not been able to make the Speaker neutral. The operational history of Taiwan's semi-presidential system is not long and its system is often categorized as the president-parliamentary subtype, which is relatively distant from the Parliamentary one. This research finds that Taiwan's legislators have complicated expectations and divided perceptions about the role of the Speaker. There is yet no consensus about whether the Speaker should be as neutral as the British Speaker among the 75 legislators surveyed in 2017 for this study. However, the Legislative Yuan's passage of a rule prohibiting the Speaker from concurrently holding any political party position can be regarded as a first step toward promoting institutionalization of Speaker neutrality after the Sunflower Movement. If Taiwan pushes for further constitutional reform that moves the system toward a premier-presidential regime, a clearer division of labor between the Prime Minister and the Speaker would hopefully gradually become established and provide a slim chance of fostering a neutral Speaker in the Legislative Yuan in the future.