procedural requirement, such that when coupled with a highly divided and intense
political atmosphere, initiating any revision will prove difficult, if not impossible.
As a result, statutes passed by the legislature under less strict procedural require-
ments seem to be the best choice to fill the gap and satisfy the need of a transitional
democracy. In the past decade, several significant quasi-constitutional statutes mark
this significant constitutional development.
The Referendum Act of 2003 was a great leap forward. The Constitution states,
“The exercise of the rights of initiative and referendum shall be prescribed
by law.”^29 However, in the four decades under the authoritarian rule of martial
law, these rights were never realized. In the 1980 s, as the calls for democratic
reform increased, the status issue of the ROC and Taiwan’s independence became
a major battle between the ruling KMT and the opposition dissidents, and people’s
right to referendum emerged at the center of the debate. It was not until the 1990 s,
upon the advent of democratic transition, that it became possible for a civil
movement to advocate people’s right to referendum. In 2003 , after more than a
decade of advocacy, the Referendum Act was passed and people’s right to referen-
dum – on both the national and local levels, regarding matters of constitutional
amendments, laws, policies – was finally realized.
30
National referendum has been initiated twice, during each of the presidential
elections in 2004 and 2008 , as a result of political manipulation. In 2004 , along with
the presidential election, President Chen initiated two proposals for national
referendum which would strengthen national defense and open negotiations with
China on an equal basis. However, both proposals failed to pass the required
threshold of more than half of the total number of the votes. In 2008 , both the
ruling party, the DPP, and the opposition KMT respectively initiated referendum
proposals as the culmination of political confrontation on the eve of the
presidential election. The DPP proposed two issues for national referendum:
( 1 ) to retrieve the property that the KMT had unduly acquired from the people
during its authoritarian rule in Taiwan and ( 2 ) to apply to “enter” the United
Nations under the name of Taiwan. The KMT, in turn, proposed two countering
issues: ( 1 ) to investigate the corruption and misdemeanor of DPP government
officials and ( 2 ) to “return” to the UN under a more pragmatic and practical name.
All these proposals failed due to the low turnout rate.
In March 2013 , due to popular opposition to the completion and operation of
the fourth nuclear power plant, the KMT government decided to call for a public
vote to resolve the controversy. Yet, because of the extremely high threshold in the
Referendum Act, this call was not welcome and even strongly criticized by
the many groups against the nuclear power plant, arguing that without reducing
(^29) ROC Constitution (Taiwan), Art. 136.
(^30) The full text of the Referendum Act is available athttp://db.lawbank.com.tw/ENG/FLAW/
FLAWDAT 0201 .asp.