The Business Changes of Local Government in Taiwan：A Case Study of Tongsiao Township

[[abstract]]鄉鎮公所是最基層的政府組織，其健全與否以及能否有效達成應有功能，滿足民眾需求，都會影響國家穩定發展。 鄉鎮公所普遍財源不足，處處以爭取上級補助，作為建設主力。「地方制度法」雖然有明確的自治事項規範，但在社會變遷與政治經濟發展當中，「其他依法律賦予之事項」、「委辦事項」、「各級政府之會辦事項」卻多如牛毛。尤其資訊化之後，鄉鎮公所業務範圍越來越廣泛，橫向縱向溝通需求增加，行政程序更加複雜，都考驗著鄉鎮公所執行能力。 本文採檔案文獻探討方式，除了針對相關的論述、法規、報導、地方政府相關議題資料等，加以蒐集和分析，以提供對問題之概括性了解外，並以通霄鎮公所為例，從民國六十六年到民國九十五年之間回溯目錄檔案當中，根據件數、內容變化，找出鄉鎮公所三十年來業務差異。此外還以實地訪談方式，了解各相關民眾、政府官員看法。 從檔案內容和歷史過程分析，我們發現：（一）地方自治雖然歷經數次變革法制變革，鄉鎮公所業務之權限劃分，依舊是以各種行政命令區隔。（二）財源不足，爭取補助，依舊是鄉鎮公所彌平財政缺口唯一選項。（三）隨著大環境變革，鄉鎮業務之廣度與深度不斷延伸，執行效度自然打折。 為解決以上問題，建議：限縮各級政府業務範圍，明確劃分權限，專一事權，減少層轉；期盼在各種選舉所產生之各級政府領導人心態改變，民眾要有「天下沒有白吃的午餐」的共識，了解爭取補助不是萬靈丹，財源應以自籌為常態，正視酬庸性質之臨時人員充斥，建置事前事後週全機制，有效監督政府施政。[[abstract]]Township offices are the most basic-level governmental organizations. A country’s stability in development will be affected by whether township offices are sound or not and whether they can achieve their due functions effectively to satisfy citizens’ needs. Commonly, a township office is short of financial resource; so it always bases its main force of construction on striving for higher-level subsidies. Although “Local Government Act” has set forth specific regulations for autonomous matters, the number of other matters such as “other matters endowed in accordance with the law”,” mandatory matters”, “every level government’s matters to be handled” is getting numerous under social change as well as economical and politic developments. Especially, with information technology, the scope of a township office’s affairs is getting larger and larger; the needs for communicating both transversely and vertically are increasing; the administration procedures have become more complex— all the matters are the trials for testing a township’s execution ability. By means of File and Literature Review, this study has gathered and analyzed much data about related discussions, regulations, reports, and data of related issues in local governments, in order to provide a generalized understanding toward problems. In addition, this study has taken Tongsiao Township Office as an example. In the retrospective contents and files from 1977 to 2006, the differences in affairs of township office have been discovered according to the quantity of documents and the changes in content. Besides, by means of Field Interview, related opinions from citizens and governmental officials have been also understood. Through the content of files and the analysis of history process, we have discovered (1) although local self-governments have encountered several reformations and legal-system reformations, the limits of authority in affairs of township office are still divided to make distinctions according to various administrative orders; (2) if short of financial resource, striving for subsidies is the only one option for a township office to make up for financial breach; (3) due to the changes in the whole environment, the affairs of township office has enlarged its scope both in breadth and depth; undoubtedly, the execution effectiveness achieves little. In order to resolve the foregoing problems, some suggestions have been proposed: the scope of affairs in every level government should be reduced and limited; the limits of authority should be divided specifically; affair authority should be concentrated to reduce operations among levels. It is hoped that the leaders in every level government elected by various elections should change their mindset. Also, the citizens should have the common consensus that “No pain, no gain”, knowing that striving for subsidies is not a panacea for a township office, and a normal status for financial resource should be built based on collecting contributions by a township office itself. The situation that temporary personnel of reward services are every where should be reviewed seriously. A sound mechanism for beforehand steps and post-procedures should be established, in order to monitor the government’s administration effectively.[[note]]碩