| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 政治學研究所 === 103 === The purpose of the research is to understand the development of the system to resolve public nuisance dispute, its operation model, and the current issues. The research also probes the gridlock facing the environmental governance and public nuisance dispute, and offers feasible solutions. Via in-depth interviews with local residents, elected representatives, Formosa Plastics Group, environmental groups and government departments, the root cause of disputes encountered during the process to resolve the environmental hazard by the case study of "Sixth Naphtha" fires in 2010 was identified.
Based on the study, it was found that the activities of resistance for environment protection functioned as a trigger to push the government to establish the Public Nuisance Dispute Mediation Act. During the resistance activities, the stakeholders considered it reasonable to solve an environmental issue as a political issue. Thus, it was difficult to control the process by laws when conflicts occurred. In the case of "Sixth Naphtha" Fires, the main cause of the resistance activity stemmed from the lack of public trust on the system to resolve the issue. This “trust” issue was further fueled by the government’s established policy of prioritizing economic development. In order to eliminate future conflicts, it is advocated that establishing trust is of prime importance, in addition to presenting truth. Only when trust becomes the core value of social capital, mutual cooperation and social cohesion could be built. “Trust” will also improve the situation experienced during the "Sixth Naphtha", where the residents had a long history of lacking confidence in the system. Moreover, empowering the residents with a bigger voice in the environmental impact assessment and audition provides a positive image to the government and a friendly atmosphere, all resulting in more involvement from the residents living in the neighborhood close to the development project.
Based on the disputes and conflicts experienced from the environmental governance and public nuisance dispute of "Sixth Naphtha", deliberative democracy and communitarianism could play significant roles. The study found that both early and higher level of involvement from the local residents and citizens in the environmental impact assessment might be one of the feasible options. During the early phase of the process, deliberative democracy at the community level is one of the options. Meanwhile, the key role for communitarianism is to encourage the participation from the residents, promote the awareness and raise the sense of honor, instead of the merely signing of the agreement.
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