投票日、就職日與權力分立──從分裂政府反思

Election Day, Inauguration Day and the Separation of Powers– A Reflection on the Current Divided Government in Taiwan

現行總統與立委之投票日暨就職日制度設計，先是長達4個多月總統就職期間，再接著是立委早於總統3個多月就職，在過往一致政府情況下，可能未造成太大政治震盪，但在當下分裂政府情形，恐不能小覷，必須正視。問題關鍵在於，當下總統與立委投票日暨就職日制度設計，似未與權力分立制度契合，因而不利現行雙首長制權力分立制度之運作。改進之重點是，在投票日期間不變前提下，總統就職日應大幅提前，甚至是提前至立法委員就職日之前，以使同樣是背負新民意之總統與國會多數，以公開透明方式，且是符合權責相符意旨下，解決各類難題，同時也是解除即將卸任總統、行政院院長及其他政務官，在此看守過渡時期負擔。

Unlike its American and French counterparts, the constitutional significance of election days as well as inauguration days of the President and members of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan have been ignored. The current system lies in the fact that not only the gap between the election day and the inauguration day of the President is too wide (more than four months), but also the inauguration day of members of the Legislative Yuan is more than three months earlier than the President’s. The defects of this system have been hidden in the past 16-year’s period of unified government. However, when Taiwan is embracing a new phase of divided government, this defective constitutional design could hurt seriously the system of separation of powers in Taiwan. Above all, this defective design of the relationship between election days and inauguration days would increase what Professor Linz famously termed “dual democratic legitimacy problem” at least during this three or four-month’s caretaker government period. What’s worse, this defective design could initiate a constitutional stalemate in the next four years at least. Based on this, this paper proposes that following the models of the US and France, we should shorten the transitional period on the one hand and move the inauguration day of the President earlier than that of members of the Legislative Yuan to build a solid foundation for the system of separation of powers in Taiwan.