In: Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs, Volume 41, 2023
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Abstract
This article represents a warning against the discourses on the Taiwanese Independence Movement. These discourses are harmful to both the Constitution of the Republic of China and constitutionalism in Taiwan. This article aims to identify what might be detrimental to constitutional democracy and is causing democratic erosion in Taiwan. In contrast to conventional wisdom, polarization has propelled democratization, whereas de-polarization has gone hand in hand with de-democratization in Taiwan. This article suggests that the cause of this phenomenon lies in the discourses on Taiwanese nationalism. These discourses have severely impinged on and damaged the two reifications of constitutionalism: demonstrating restraint in taking advantage of institutional/constitutional prerogatives and considering opponents and dissenters as the loyal, legitimate opposition and contenders for state power. Critically, these discourses conflate the demos and ethnos and become discursive silverfish within the constitutional democratic regime in Taiwan.
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