民主行政與永續發展：比較台灣與香港環境影響評估制度與運作

Abstract

民主參與和專業行政往往被視為兩種互斥的情境－多一分民主協商的精神，便少一點專業執著；同時，環境政治因涉及專業，並具備分散利益對抗集中利益等諸多政策特性，因此在理論上與民主制度並不容易對環境特別友善。然而，近來研究卻發現，民主國家比獨裁的政權，更能保護其環境以追求永續發展的目標，並主張民主行政對永續發展的頁獻，在於其提供了政策參與及公開討論的機制，使政府必須更重視分散的環境利益。因此，在環境政策中，民主參與可能與專業行政相輔相成。

Quite puzzling has been that the more a country democratizes, the more likely it becomes environmental friendly. Theoretically, representative democracy does not square well with the features of environmental politics in which diffuse interests confront concentrated ones. To solve this puzzle, this paper examines institutional arrangements and practices of environmental impact assessments in Hong Kong and Taiwan. By demonstrating the incentives of the respective administrative agencies under two different sets of institutions, this paper argues that a government isolated from popular scrutiny and citizen participation would be less responsive to environmental interests.