| Summary: | 碩士 === 佛光大學 === 公共事務學系 === 98 === “Citizen Participation” has become an important area of study in political science and public administration. Citizen participation and public administration can create a new democratic and civil culture while enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of government policy. Implementation of an environment impact assessment (EIA) system is a major milestone for the government’s environmental policy in Taiwan. The citizen participation mechanism is an important part of the EIA process as a supplement to professional and technical assessment. However, in practice, the facilitation of citizen participation in the “Environmental Impact Assessment Act” has not been used effectively. It has been primarily applied in more controversial cases or those directly related to the public interest that arouses public interest and participation. However, broad, general use has generated low public participation. Our research has suggested that the cause for this low participation is general public’s lack of understanding of the “Environmental Impact Assessment Act” as well as their lack of familiarity with the concept of “Citizen Governance” and “Civic Society.” To overcome this issue, responsible authorities may need to focus more attention on increasing citizen participation mechanism.
The main body of this thesis is the legal procedures of citizen participation in “Environmental Impact Assessment Act” and indicating how the EIA citizen participation mechanism actually operates in practice. The first chapter explains the research purpose, research framework, research methods and scope of the basic content. The second chapter explores the basic rights of citizen participation from the legal aspects of academia by referencing literature and extends rights of participation for environmental policy through citizen participation theory. The third chapter explains the reviewing process of EIA and the operation of citizen participation mechanism in Taiwan. The last chapter further analyzes the effectiveness of promoting EIA and the operation of citizen participation mechanism in Taiwan by the study of the “Development Project of Hsinchu Science Park in Southern Yilan Base.” Finally, it gives the conclusions and recommendations to responsible authorities for follow-up laws and references in citizen participation mechanisms by the case study’s observation and in-depth interviews. Hopefully under the circumstances of limited environmental resources, this thesis can help decision makers understand the problems on hand and identify the sources of these problems. In doing so, the decision makers can take immediate and effective improvements to enhance the quality of citizen participation in EIA process.
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