縣市合併對議會政治生態影響之研究：臺中市、臺南市與高雄市議會之比較研究

Abstract

臺中市、臺南市與高雄市（下簡稱：三直轄市）在2010年縣市合併時，議員席次大幅減少，影響新組成的三直轄市議會政治生態。據此，本文研究目的為瞭解三直轄市議會的政治生態在縣市合併前、後有無不同，並深入探究其等同或不同的原因。為達成上述研究目的，本文採取文獻分析法、深度訪談法與比較研究法作為研究方法。 「縣市合併」是本研究當中最重要的自變項，而三直轄市在縣市合併後，發生2項與議會政治生態有關的制度性變遷，分別為：其一、議員應選席次減少造成當選難度提高。其二、市政資源變大且更集中於市長。據此，本文提出研究假設如下： 假設1、議員應選席次減少會提升議會政黨政治運作強度。 假設2、市長資源與權力變大會使市長與議員的侍從連結程度無法有效降低。 為方便進行縣市合併前、後異同，以及三直轄市彼此之間的比較，本文將前述2項假設所提出的「議會政黨政治運作強度」與「市長與議員的侍從連結程度」2個面向，分別設計數個指標加以測量。將「議會政黨政治運作強度」設為橫軸（X軸），「市長與議員的侍從連結程度」設為縱軸（Y軸），製成2*2的表，區分成「弱政黨高侍從」、「弱政黨低侍從」、「強政黨高侍從」、「強政黨低侍從」等4個模式，並以屆次為觀察單位，以瞭解三直轄市各時期議會政治生態各自屬於何種模式。經檢視後發現，三直轄市議會在縣市合併後的發展走向，與本文假設相符。 本文研究發現為：一、臺中市議會深受縣區地方派系影響。二、臺南市議會無黨籍風氣盛行。三、高雄市議會型態最為多元。四、三直轄市合併後傾向「強政黨高侍從」模式。五、原臺中市議會與第2屆高雄市議會為「強政黨低侍從」理想型模式。在學術貢獻上，則是重新檢視縣市合併後地方派系與政黨關係的調整，以及關於侍從體制存否等議題。最後提出研究建議如下：一、取消議員建議款以回應參與民主訴求。二、借鏡理想型模式經驗以強化議會監督制衡功能。

The Influences of Municipal Merger on Local Council Politics: A Comparative Study of Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung The mergers of Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung in 2010 has brought forth a downscale to the seats of their councils hence heavily influenced their local council politics. Therefore, this dissertation would like to make use of literature review, in-depth interviews, and comparative analysis to determine the similarities and differences of the local council politics of Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung before and after their mergers and to discover their causal factors accordingly. The most important independent variables of this research are the mergers of Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung; while 2 institutional changes have influenced their local council politics after the mergers: 1. The difficulty of being elected has increased because of the sharp decline of the local council seats were sharply decreased; 2. The municipal financial resources have increased and are more concentrated in the mayor’s hands. Henceforth this dissertation proposes 2 hypotheses: H1: The decrease of local council seats will increase the party mobilization in the congress. H2: The increase of mayor’s power and financial resources will not efficiently discourage the clientelism in between the mayor and the local councilor. To facilitate the comparisons among Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung and before and after their mergers, this dissertation compares the different terms of local councils of the aforementioned three cities by taking “the intensity of party mobilization in the local council” as the X axis while “the intensity of clientelism in between the mayor and the local councilor” as the Y axis to make a 2 by 2 column to illustrate the 4 models of their local council politics: 1. Weak parties and strong clientelism; 2. Weak parties and weak clientelism; 3. Strong parties and strong clientelism, and 4. Strong parties and weak clientelism. The 5 findings match the dissertation’s hypotheses and indicate: 1. The Taichung City Council is heavily influenced by local political factions; 2. In the Tainan City Council are many independent congressmen not affiliated to any parties; 3. the Kaohsiung city council is ideal type, and 4.Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung tend to the “strong parties and strong clientelism” model after their mergers. 5.The 16th Taichung city council and the second Kaohsiung city council are the “strong parties and strong clientelism” (ideal types). This dissertation also revisited the adjustments of the relationships in between parties and local political factions after the municipal mergers and the existence of clientelism. Therefore, it derives two recommendations: 1. to withdraw the local councilor’s earmark grants in order to address the claims of participatory democracy, and 2. to reference ideal type experience in order to strengthen the functions of supervisory of the local council.