A Commentary: Low Plebiscite Bars Will Impact 2018 Local Elections

  A Commentary

Low Plebiscite Bars Will Impact 2018 Local Elections

By Julian Kuo

Source: Formosa E-paper

December 15, 2017

Translation of an Excerpt

Julian Kuo, a DPP legislator and professor of political science, contributed an article to Formosa E-paper on December 15. According to him, plebiscites seem to be an approach that most respects "people as the masters of the nation." The problem is that the theory and practice of plebiscites have a huge gap, especially nationwide plebiscites.

The majority of advanced democratic countries adopt a cautious attitude in plebiscites and adopt them only when absolutely necessary. Countries like the United States, Germany and the Netherlands don’t even have nationwide plebiscites.

The Plebiscite Act, as amended, provides the lowest bars for plebiscite proposals, co-sponsorships, and plebiscite elections in the world. 2018 happens to be the year for local elections in Taiwan. It is imaginable that plebiscites will be used by opposition parties as a super-weapon to mobilize popular opinion.

A plebiscite proposal on opposing imports of US pork containing ractopamine residues, or one to change the national anthem, would probably not only erode the electoral base of the DPP, at the same time, it would impact Taiwan-US trade talks that badly need breakthroughs, as well impact the already precarious cross-Strait relations.

In any case, for the DPP government, that will be the beginning of a new catastrophe.

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