triggered intense political confrontation, partisan fights, and Constitutional Court
rulings against the backdrop of contentious politics in a new democracy. Concerns
of accountability also surfaced regarding whether and to what extent the unity
of the administration would be derogated for the purpose of establishing the
NCC.^61 Despite all the controversies, however, the creation of the first independent
commission signified Taiwan’s great leap toward a new era of administrative
reform.
The empowerment of the judiciary is another recent accomplishment of global
constitutional convergence. Similar to establishing an independent commission,
for emerging democracies, empowering the judiciary is a way to assuage political
imbroglios and uphold justice. In newly emerging democracies, intense political
disputes usually arise and require the judiciary to intervene. Especially in a
presidential democracy, where the president shoulders not only the function of
acting as the head of state, but also the role of chief executive, the winner-take-all
institution nearly assures political animosity and severe confrontation. In Taiwan,
the constitutional revision of 2005 further invested in the Constitutional Court the
power to adjudicate disputes regarding presidential impeachment, a change that
clearly corresponded to the global trend of empowering courts to resolve highly
charged political disputes.
62
Government reform and access to information
Globalization appears to be a key driving force for recent government innovation
that has taken place in many developed and developing countries.^63 Governments
have undertaken reforms over the last two decades while their respective purpose,
intensity, measures and timing have varied from one to another. The stated link of
these reforms to globalization has been divergent, and reform measures appear to
have borne strong connotations of the nature of globalization and the dynamics
of global governance. These reforms involve a common outcry for good govern-
ment in terms of integrity, competence, and quality of performance in the dis-
charge of public functions. They included organizational, operational, and process
reforms, as well as new ways of managing human resources. Concurrently, related
issues, including access to information and government transparency, also surface
as focal points of discussion. Aside from meeting the dynamics of global
(^61) J.Y. Interpretation No 613 ( 2006 ), available atwww.judicial.gov.tw/constitutionalcourt/EN/
p 03 _ 01 .asp?expno= 613.
(^62) Chang, “Strategic judicial response,” 886.
(^63) Concerning government reform in the trend of globalization, see Jiunn-rong Yeh, “Glob-
alization, government reform and the paradigm shift of administrative law” ( 2010 ), 5 ( 2 )
National Taiwan University Law Review 113 (arguing that current government reforms have
not been comprehensive in their response to globalization, and that massive flows and
varying kinds and degrees of convergence require not only domestic government reforms
but also transnational collaboration).