平等原則對公務員執行公務的意義
蔡明華
《摘要》
Robert B. Denhardt與Janet V. Denhardt在所提出的新公共服務觀點中特別強調，「公民參與」和「社區建設」是政府執行政策的主要焦點。
公務員執行公務時，公民參與是適當且必要的，特別是在公務員行使自由裁量權時，透過公民參與監督可有效避免因裁量權行使的不公平所帶給人民的傷害。而當公務員執行社區建設時，因事涉公共資源的分配，與人民及社區的利益糾葛既深且廣，如何確保人民的基本權利、維護社會的公平正義、追求社區公共利益的最大化、健全民主政治的實行、進而實現社會富裕、國家長治久安的長遠目標等等，不僅需要公民參與監督，更有賴於公務員執行公務時對「平等原則」正確而有效的堅持。
平等權是所有基本權的基礎，是憲法所保障的人民基本權利，也是民主制度建立與國家權力行使之基磐。有鑑於平等原則具有關鍵性的重要意義，因此本文針對公務員執行公務時應遵守的平等原則進行研究，除了從公務倫理、公務員的裁量權、規範及政治等四個面向進行探討之外，最後亦對「公務人員行政中立法」及「公務人員基準法草案」的未來走向歸納出一些建議。
[關鍵詞]：新公共服務、公民參與、公共利益、社區建設、平等原則
The Significance of Equality Principle to Officials in the Implementation of Public Affairs
Ming-Hua Tsai
Abstract
According to the viewpoint of the new public service which was advocated by Robert B. Denhardt and Janet V. Denhardt, a primary focus of implementation is citizen engagement and community building.
When the public affairs including the discretion are exercised by officials, citizen engagement must be properly applied to prevent the right of citizen from being damaged. In order to protect the basic right of people, to maintain social justice, to pursue the maximum interests of community, to have a healthy democracy, to build a wealthy society and finally to achieve the long term peace, stability and prosperity of the nation, when an official carries out the community building which always relates to the benefit of the community and each citizen more or less, not only are citizen participation and supervision required, the insistence of the official on the principle of equality is also absolutely necessary.
Equality is the base of the citizen basic right. Equality itself is one of the most important basic right which is normally stipulated in the constitution. Actually equality is the essential ground of democracy and national power. In consideration of the importance of the equality principle as a key to the modern democratic country, this article would like to analyze and study the subject from four different perspectives: the ethics of the official, the discretion of the official, the stipulation of the law including the constitution and the factors of political affairs. And at the end several suggestions for “the law of administration neutrality for officials” and “the draft code of behavior for officials” were offered as the conclusion of this paper.
Keywords: new public service, citizen engagement (or participation), public interests, community building, equality principle