民主治理中之資訊交易關係:以臺北市政府府會聯絡機制為例之研究
陳敦源、郭政瑋
過去台灣對於行政立法關係的研究,多屬於憲政體制選擇或是職權運作公法基礎的政治觀點,一直缺乏公共行政觀點的討論,就如行政學鼻祖Woodrow Wilson所言,即便我們能夠建構(frame)一部憲法,如何去運作(run)依然是困難的問題。民主治理的制度設計從不信任(distrust)出發,在立憲時刻建構分權制衡的體制;然而,為了讓政府能有效的運作,365天的行政立法互動關係,必須在結構衝突當中尋找合作的制度性途徑,而聯絡機制就是引導行政與立法機關合作的重要機制,值得從民主治理的角度進行深入研究。
本研應用以深度訪談法為主的質化研究工具,對臺北市府會聯絡機制進行網絡式的接觸,包括現任、卸任的府會聯絡人、議員及其助理、單位首長、及記者共30人接受訪談,最後,作者再藉著「非數值資料分析軟體」—NUD‧IST,對訪談文本內容進行現象重構與回饋的工作,最後據此作出結論。
本研究主要結論有三點,其一,從歸納的結果來看,資訊交易是行政立法互動的關鍵本質,我們從府會聯絡人平時主要工作內容清楚地觀察到這項事實,而其工作策略的核心,在於首長授權、業務熟習程度、以及信任關係建立與維繫;其二,聯絡機制合作建構的理論論述,應該放在長期「重複互動」(iterated interaction)的框架中才有意義,並且要注意府會聯絡工作中,調合「課責」與「效率」兩個需要,因此「透明」的概念就產生府會聯絡機制設計上的弔詭性(dilemma);最後,本研究接下來的經驗範疇與方法應用,可以朝向地方政府比較、工作價值或能力分類、以及個案討論,在方法上則不論是從Q-methodology、封閉式問卷、或形式理論,都可站在本文所產生的基礎上,更深入研究公共行政與民主政治的關係。
[關鍵字]: 民主治理、行政立法關係、府會聯絡機制、資訊交易、政治管理
Information Transactions in Democratic Governance: A Case Study on Taipei City Government’s Legislative Liaison Mechanism
Don-yun Chen, Cheng-wei Kuo
Abstract
Executive-legislative relations are at the core of democratic governance. However, literature on this topic usually focuses on constitutional engineering and legal perspectives. For the purpose of public management, we need a public administration perspective on this issue from a public manager’s viewpoint. Also, examining the daily operation of the legislative liaison reveals the “secret of efficiency” of democratic governance. In this paper, the authors adopt qualitative method of face-to-face interview with 30 persons whose jobs are related to the legislative liaison mechanism in Taipei City Government. Then we utilize a qualitative data analysis software called “NUD.IST (Non-numerical Unstructured Data by techniques of Indexing Searching and Theorizing)” to analyze text-based interview data. Our conclusion is three-folds. First, we find that the nature of the legislative liaison mechanism is information transactions. Second, three factors are critical for establishing an effective legislative liaison mechanism: trust-building, professionalism, and delegation from leadership. Finally, we discover a fundamental conflict between trust-building behavior in the liaison mechanism to encourage cooperation and the purpose of check-and-balance to distrust elected officials. Further research on this topic is needed to reveal the reality of the executive-legislative relations in democratic governance .
Keywords: Executive-legislative Relations, Democratic Governance, Legislative Liaison Mechanism, Information Transactions, Political Management