台灣地區的民主化過程一直是中外學者注視的焦點。在長期實行民選地方政府或地方自治的台灣，真正是一個民主的社會嗎？在解嚴、動戡時期終止前，很容易回答，由於沒有組黨自由，中央民代選舉只是部分的增額改選，台灣的全國政治並不能達到民主社會的基本標準。但是，地方選舉則是長期地、完整地在舉行，要回答台灣地方是否民主，仍很難輕易地給予答案。地方民主是如此複雜、多樣化的面貌，如何才算達成地方民主？本論文基本上是以Leach和Percy-Smith所提出的地方民主的四個面向為標準，此即：1、課責性；2、回應性；3、參與性；4、代表性；進而探討。 筆者研究後發現：第一，從台北市的民主經驗來看，代表性應該不是問題的癥結；所謂的代表性是否意味著該和R. A. Dahl所言的，和社會人口或職業的結構相符合？在地方民主上來看，由於社會的多元化，以及要求民意代表的專業及高學歷背景，代表社會結構的多元民主（polyarchy）是否值得再強調？可以深思。第二，從台北市的民主經驗來看，參與性應該是地方民主很重要的一項指標。如何讓民眾更直接的參與到民主政治中，除了選舉之外，應該有更多的、直接的交換意見的平台或管道，例如公民投票、公民論壇、協調會等等。第三，地方民主的參與和地方政府的回應性夾雜在一塊，民眾參與到政策討論的領域中，政府也加入予以回應。所以，地方民主中，回應性與參與性似乎呈現某種程度的關聯性。第四，不論是參與性、回應性等民主的程度，都與政府能力有關，似乎地方政府解決問題的能力越高，民眾就越會表現出對於地方政府做為的參與，以及政策的回應。

本文旨在探討透過權力分享式民主與審議式民主的取徑，來緩解當前台灣民主困境的可行性。 首先，本文討論了當前台灣民主困境的成因，以及藍綠雙方的根本差異。同時指出，台灣當前的民主困境可被視為一種極度分裂社會的狀態來理解，並將台灣民主困境的關鍵難題，定位在認同差異與政治不信任。 其次，本文從既有的權力分享式民主的文獻中，梳理出有助於解決當前台灣民主困境的「規範性概念」與「經驗性證據」；做為權力分享式民主對當前台灣民主困境的回應。經過分析後發現，利用協合式民主去處理當前台灣民主困境，應是個值得嘗試的方向。若將協合式民主中菁英間的決策模式，改由審議取代議價，則此種修正型的協合式民主可為長期解決族群衝突提供更多的可能性。 繼之，本文從既有的審議式民主的文獻中，梳理出有助於解決當前台灣民主困境的「規範性理念」與「經驗性證據」，作為審議式民主對於當前台灣民主困境的回應。經過分析後發現，理論上，審議式民主的理想審議是可以解決當前台灣民主困境，只不過理想言說情境在現實生活中很難達成。但是這並不排除理想言說情境是可以近似達成的。不過文獻中迄今仍無經驗證據顯示，單獨利用審議式民主可以解決在極度分裂社會中的國家認同問題。為了讓對立雙方願意自由參加對話、願意相互尊重，以及願意理性溝通，必須提供誘因，而權力分享就是一種誘因。此外，為了判斷對話或審議環境是否接近理想言說情境，必須要有量化的測量工具，而話語品質指數(DQI)就是一種工具。因此，權力分享與DQI，就是強化審議式民主的兩種有效工具。 面對當前台灣民主困境，本文最後提出了一個結合協合式民主與審議式民主(即修正型的協合式民主)的現階段策略的建議。 / This thesis explores the feasibility of mitigating ethnic conflict of current Taiwan employing the methods of power-sharing democracy and deliberative democracy. First of all, the causes and the key difficult problems of democratic predicament, and the dispute in national identity between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, as those currently exist in Taiwan, are discussed in greater detail. The key difficult problems appear to be conflict in identities and political distrust. Next, based on the existing literature of power-sharing democracy, this thesis identifies the normative ideas and empirical evidences that are relevant to the settlement of democratic predicament of current Taiwan. After an in depth analysis, it concludes that the use of consociational approach to manage democratic predicament of current Taiwan should be the direction worth trying. The so-called modified consociational democracy, which is formed to meet the deliberative requirements of publicity and reciprocity, by replacing consociational decision making with deliberation, may provide more possibility for longer-term goal of ethnic conflict resolution. Likewise, based on the existing literature of deliberative democracy, this thesis identifies the normative ideas and empirical evidences that are relevant to the settlement of democratic predicament of current Taiwan. After an in depth analysis, it concludes that, theoretically, the use of ideal deliberation approach appears capable of dealing with the democratic predicament of current Taiwan. Although it is not possible to create Habermas’s ideal speech situation on a precise level, it is possible to achieve ISS approximately. However, there did not exist any empirical evidence in the literature to demonstrate that the application of deliberative democracy alone may provide conflict resolution of the national identity problem in deeply divided societies. In order to let both sides of the conflicting groups be willing to participate freely in the dialogue, be willing to respect one another, and be willing to communicate rationally, it is necessarily to provide both sides with power-sharing incentives tailored to make both sides feel absolutely secure. In addition, in order to evaluate how close the dialogue or deliberative approaches the conditions of ideal speech situation, it is necessarily to have a quantitative measuring instrument at our disposal and the discourse quality index (DQI) is such an instrument. Therefore, power-sharing and DQI tend to form two effective tools for strengthening the deliberative democracy. Finally, this thesis proposes the modified consociational democracy as the present stage strategy for the resolution of democratic predicament of current Taiwan.