A Zen koanSeptember 20th, 2005 by Roy Berman |
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If a country elects their legislature through free and fair elections, but they spend their sessions physically fighting each other and don’t actually pass any bills, is the country still a democracy?
Photograph and caption from the Taipei Times:
DPP Legislator Wang Shu-hui, left, attacks KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun, right, after Kuo tore up a copy of Premier Frank Hsieh’s policy report that he was scheduled to deliver yesterday at the opening of a new sitting of the legislature.
Oh, and please, please don’t refer to Taiwanese politics as ‘kabuki.’
September 21st, 2005 at 12:06 pm
Oh, and please, please don’t refer to Taiwanese politics as ‘kabuki.’
Never! The proper scientific term is politicus brawlicus.
September 24th, 2005 at 7:46 am
Roberts Rules, banned in Taipei
A question: When and if Taiwan is reunified with the mainland, will Taiwan’s representatives in Beijing still act like these two ladies from the DPP and KMT?
Taiwanese politics has consistently made me think American partisan theatrics ainR…
December 24th, 2005 at 8:56 pm
The proper term is 歌仔戲.
I’d like that to happen here. Ted Kennedy would SO kick Santorum’s ass.
July 24th, 2006 at 2:50 am
[...] Perhaps a more desirable solution would be to embrace a system more similar to a US caucus style system, in which a legislator may choose to affiliate themselves with a group organized around a specific issue or constituency that they endorse. While a caucus (they may also be referred to as Study Groups, Coalitions etc.) is a formally registered group within the Congress, they are not exclusive. That is, a congressman can belong to any number of Caucuses that he or she supports. Also unlike a faction, a caucus is not a division of a political party, and not necessarily partisan at all. To pluck an example totally at random, take the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, whose four co-chairs include two Republicans and two Democrats (as well as 148 other congressmembers.) US politics may be bitterly partisan, but the level of cooperation between the two major parties is still approximately a million times better than between Taiwan’s own two major parties. [...]