ABSTRACT
In sharp contrast, the Central Bank is not guaranteed with independence by law but has been quite capable of keeping a distance from partisan politics especially since democratization began in the late 1980s. This chapter discusses the National Communications Commission's (NCC) troubled creation and a pyramid of challenges to its independence from the executive branch, the legislative branch, the courts, and the media and general public. The key to the Central Bank's independence has been not law, but the practices shaped and reshaped by those contextual dynamics in different times. Like the NCC, the Central Bank's independence is constantly faced with challenges from the executive, legislature, judiciary, the media, and the general public. The comparison between the NCC and the Central Bank in Taiwan has clearly demonstrated that contextual dynamics under which independent regulatory commissions operate are more crucial than law, to the maintenance of independence for independent regulatory commissions.
