國立臺灣大學政治科學論叢

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

The development of democracy in Taiwan has shown itself to be successful inlocal self-government and democratic elections; it has even completed the peacefultransition  of  central  ruling  parties  through  means  of  election.  However,  there  arestill some symptoms of ill-health with the development of local political democracyin Taiwan: the powerlessness and dysfunction of local governments, oligarchy andpower abuse of elected political bodies, worsening of political ecology and closedpolitical  processes  in  local  democracy,  problems  with  monopoly  and  the  spoilssystem  in  governing  local  public  resources  and  the  politico-economic  interestsshown  by  informal  groups  such  as  local  factions,  families-and-relatives  or  mafia-and-money  (black-gold)  coalition.  These  factors  all  impede  the  development  oflocal political democracy consolidation and its deepening in Taiwan.Reconstructing political ecology, culture, institution, and governance capacityare possible problem-solving strategies. From cases in Britain and the United States,we  can  find  some  valuable  pragmatic  reflections:  enhancing  the  capacity  of  localgovernment  and  self-government,  empowering  local  civil  social  organizations,‘bridge  and  build’  collaborative  governance  structure  to  make  public  sectors  andprivate  or  social  organizations  become  governing  partnerships  or  networks  ondivergent public issues and policies. In detail, “Sunny Acts” should be established,to  improve  the  principles  necessary  for  transparency,  openness,  participation  andaccountability,  and  to  prevent  and  avoid  corruption  and  power  abuse  within  local political  bodies.  In  addition,  central  government  should  amend  or  build  relevantlaws   and   regulations   that   encourage   and   subsidize   local   governments   inintergovernmental  cooperation  and  cross-boundary  management.  These  strategieson governance capacity-building and institution-building will be good for Taiwan tomake strong democracy for local politics development.