Jurisdiction labels: ROC (Taiwan), South Korea, Spain and Poland are separate comparative cases. Their dates, court structures, election rules and implementation outcomes are not combined and are not treated as factual data about a future or present mainland-China transition.
Public Research Edition — updated September 2, 2026
Comparative cases are used to test specific institutional questions, not to import a foreign model wholesale. Each case is separated by jurisdiction, historical setting, legal mechanism and the implementation question it can actually illuminate.
From ratification to ordinary constitutional government
The current comparison follows separate implementation clocks: constitutional ratification or referendum, promulgation or entry into force, the first ordinary nationwide election under the new framework, institutional seating and the first ordinary exercise of constitutional powers. Taiwan, South Korea and Spain therefore are not reduced to one symbolic “transition date.”
In Taiwan, the 2005 seventh constitutional amendment was approved through the temporary National Assembly under the then-existing ratification system and simultaneously abolished that body, transferring future final constitutional-amendment ratification to the electorate. The first direct use of the new ratification mechanism occurred in 2022. A majority of valid yes/no votes favored the proposal, but the constitutional threshold requires affirmative votes exceeding half of all eligible electors, so the amendment did not pass.
In South Korea, the 1987 constitutional referendum, the December presidential election, the Constitution’s 1988 entry into force, the new presidential term and the April 1988 National Assembly election are treated as separate institutional events. The Constitutional Court is likewise tracked from constitutional authorization through implementing legislation, judicial appointments, first case intake and first merits decision. Local democratic implementation is separated into restored local-council elections in 1991 and direct local-executive elections in 1995.
Spain is coded through the 1976 political-reform referendum, the 1977 constituent election, the 1978 constitutional referendum and entry into force, and the first ordinary parliamentary election under the new Constitution in 1979. Its Constitutional Court is separately tracked through implementing legislation, appointment, institutional launch, case intake and early decisions.
Constitutional review: creation versus transformation
Institutional comparison requires attention to starting conditions. South Korea and Spain provide examples of a newly established constitutional court becoming operational. Taiwan’s 2022 Constitutional Court Procedure Act instead transformed and judicialized an existing constitutional-review system and added new procedural remedies. Treating all three as identical “court creation” events would obscure the institutional history.
Security-sector transition
Poland’s 1990 transition remains a targeted case for examining dissolution or replacement of security institutions, personnel vetting, temporary continuity of essential functions, individual service rights and the distinction between passing a vetting process and receiving a permanent appointment.
Method controls
- Do not convert implementation speed into a democracy-quality ranking.
- Do not assume presidential and parliamentary systems have mechanically equivalent government-formation or accountability events.
- Separate constitutional authorization, implementing law, staffing, first use, first merits output and actual implementation.
- Use foreign cases to test a defined institutional question; do not treat them as ready-made answers for a future Chinese transition.
See Research Updates & Version History for the September 2 evidence update, source qualifications and unresolved questions.
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