Revisiting the Issue of Political Neutrality vs. Administrative Neutrality? Past Choices and Future Development
Chung-Yung Hsiung*
Abstract
Since the Civil Service Administrative Neutrality Act was enacted in 2009, debates have been going on about its application. This paper aims to show the deficiencies of the Act and then provide suggestions for its improvement.
After reviewing the historical literature, the author found that the original purpose of the Act is to ensure that the civil servants execute duties in accordance with the law and regulations, that they do so in a just manner and that they will be protected from political intervention when doing their jobs. Therefore, the norms of political activities were not the primary consideration. That’s a significant difference from the western democracies. That is to say, we established the administrative neutrality mechanism based on our own practical needs, but not taking reference from the experience of western countries.
The author also found that the competent authority of the act--Ministry of Civil Service--thought political appointees, teachers, judges and soldiers should maintain neutrality while executing duties; as for how exactly to maintain administrative neutrality, that could be regulated in other acts. Finally, in keeping with the democratic development, the author suggests revising the Act in such a way as to make the norms of political activities the main body of the Act.
Keywords: administrative neutrality, political neutrality, rule of law, just execution, norms of political activity
* Assistant Professor, Dept. of Public Policy and Management, Shih Hsin University, email: c100@exam.gov.tw.