Decision-Making in the Public Sector: The Electoral Reform in Taiwan“Single-member Constituency Two ballots System” and “Cutting the Legislative Seats
in Half” Case Study
黃國敏
Public Administration
Humanities and Social Sciences
edhwang@chu.edu.tw
Abstract
Decision-making is the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the
values and preferences of the decision maker. Decision making is also the process of
sufficiently reducing uncertainty and doubt about alternatives to allow a reasonable
choice to be made from among them. The research methods in this study include
naturalistic (unobtrusive) and recording observation and case study.
On August
23, 2004, the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan passed landmark constitutional amendment
proposals to cut the number of legislative seats from 225 to 113, extend terms to four
years from three, adopt a "single-member constituency two-ballot" system, ensure
women half of the seats for legislators from the nationwide constituency, give people
referendum rights, and abolish the National Assembly. They signify the district
legislators shall be elected as the number of districts; nationwide constituency and
overseas legislators shall be elected according to the list of nomination of the parties
that has garnered more than 5% of the votes, Female legislators shall account for no
less than one half of the elected members of each party.
Comparing the decisionmaking theories and the Taiwanese electoral reform case study shows that the
governmental politics model (bureaucratic politics model or political decision model)
explains most the legislature’s arena. Power is matter, and the most decisions in
Congress are made based on partisan struggle rather than rationality.
Keyword：decision-making, electoral reform, Taiwan, governmental politics model,
political decision model