A Democratic Chinese Constitution, Or Surfing To The Moon

It occurred to me that a grand contribution to NaCFCWriMo would be a democratic Chinese constitution. Alas, no sooner did it occur to me than I realised what an overwhelmingly difficult task it would be. 1.3 billion people, 23 provinces (more or less), 5 autonomous regions, 57 years of communist rule, regional GDP per capita that ranges from Portugal to Kyrgystan, environmental and demographic problems, a colelction of scary border and sovereignty disputes, and the world's oldest continuous bureaucratic tradition. The only way to govern such a massive and diverse polity is surely with a very light central hand and a lot of regional leeway; but to offer such leeway is to risk the less eager provinces, such as Tibet, declaring independence, a result which would enrage the nationalist majority.
Working with existing constitutional arrangements is also difficult; in many ways they are still works in progress. Deng Xiaoping, for instance, though widely acknowledged in his time as China's political leader, never held the Presidency or Premiership. Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao seem to have settled into Head of State / Head of Government roles in public, but the actual mechanisms and everyday policy decisions remain murky manoeverings amongst party commitees. The PRC does have a parliament, which could be given teeth instead of a rubber stamp.

Looking for inspiration in the constitutional arrangements of the Republic of China (nowadays Taiwan), the explicit document from 1928 is an interesting one, containing Five Branches of Government , including one for examining civil servants. However the constitutional arrangements in practice have been rather turbulent ones, with the constitution being suspended in Taiwan from 1947 to 1988, and progressive local parties considering it now rather out of date. Seeing as it was written with the land mass of late Qing dynasty China in mind, including claims to now independent (Outer) Mongolia, you can see their point.

Given all this, and though I remain confident in future government of, for and by the Chinese people, I have left a democratic constitution as an exercise for the alert reader, and simply changed the front page poll .
Permalink, A Democratic Chinese Constitution, Or Surfing To The Moon, Apr 2006, adam
cam: The Control Yuan: sounds like a super-ICAC with a tinge of the Referee GG and Governor Magistrate thrown in.

South Korea has an ICAC too interestingly. I think South Korea, NSW and one other are the only independant commissions against corruption.

cam
adam: Yeah: Though in practice the Control and Examination Yuans seem to have become constitutional appendices or spleens, that have been fairly marginalised by the traditional democratic big three.
cam: I suspect the control Yuan: if it did get power would end up like the NSW Legislative Council in the 1800s and be a means for the elite to control power despite the appearance of a democratic legislature.

I thought it was interesting the PRC had problems between a democratically elected executive and legislature because they were held by different parties. I suspect both claimed they had popular mandate too. The US experience is the opposite. Theirs works worst when a faction holds both arms.

On the wiki article is claimed that some in PRC thought a parliamentary system would work better as it smoothed the factional differences between executive and legislative. Factions are a fact of life in politics, but should they be kow-towed too because they can potentially paralyse government if they dont get their way?

cam
adam: Stalking horse for elites?: No doubt you\'re right about giving the Control Yuan too much power, though the presence of a super-ICAC is still interesting. I assume it was a way of attacking rampant late-Qing corruption.

Do you mean the RoC (ie Taiwan)? I can\'t find the bit you\'re referring to, but one of the reasons the US system seems to work better when the Presidency and Congress are controlled by different parties is because they get less done, more slowly. Remember the US having a supply crisis under Clinton, when Gingrich was Speaker of the House? They resolved it eventually. I tend to be a skeptic of government power and so support moments where it ties itself in knots making new laws; others aren\'t. Honestly though, most legislative deadlock does not stop the machinery of government turning, just slows its expansion, or reform.

So far as I know the PRC, beyond Hong Kong and a few local experiments, has little experience of elections.
cam: RoC sorry, not PRC: Got confused. ICAC is interesting as it has no minister and is aimed at executive corruption. It is interesting that Carr was being chased by ICAC before he retired and now we don\'t hear anything of it.

Makes me think that something actively ensureing executive compliance is a good thing.

I saw again today somewhere else, cannot recall where, that a parliamentary system was argued for, because it let parties get on with governing. Presumably without factional dissent.

Which I find odd. The only reason I would continue with a parliamentary system in Australia is historical precedent and the fear that too revolutionary a system will create corruption at the new edges that form. I would prefer something that can be permanently evolutionary in digestable steps.

cam

More Reading on China

Most Popular on South Sea Republic

The articles that have been viewed the most:

Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix

Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for Phoenix, Scottsdale and Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area. This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most; My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are AZ88, Postinos, Bomberos with Grazie, Humble Pie, Orange Table, The Vig, Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on phoenixeatsout.com

Most Popular Hikes in Arizona

Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak. For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in Tom's Thumb and Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.

Alternate Australian Constitutions

Between 2004 and 2009 this site, southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues. One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome: The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.

Archives For South Sea Republic

South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then; The articles are ordered by views.

Who Is Cam Riley

Cam Riley I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident. I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end. I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.

I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now. The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.

Websites Worth Reading

Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;