當社區營造遇到參與式預算：兩個社區的比較研究

When Community Building Meets Participatory Budgeting: A Comparison between Two Communities

公民社團對於民主的建立與運作相當重要，公民社團的活躍程度經常被視為評判民主運作的標準。本文以文化部在公所層級推動的參與式預算為例，檢視公民社團與民主實踐的關係。透過比較模範與起步兩個社區的參與式預算運作，本文認為，社區的政治文化影響民眾對於民主的想像，進而造成兩個社區的民主實踐的差異。在本文的研究案例中，社造「強」的社區，容易讓社區成員將參與式預算視為爭取資源的管道，注重參與式預算產出的方案是否能配合菁英對於社區的規劃，而在社造「弱」的社區中，社區成員在參與式預算有更多的發聲與決定的機會。本文指出，社區會形成何種政治文化與它們受到社造行政管理程序的影響程度、社區英雄的存在與否，以及社區資源的豐富程度而定。本文建議，未來可以把研究對象由社區發展協會擴充到其他的公民社團，檢視其他類型的公民社團的文化與民主實作的關係，也可以對於社區做長時間的觀察，瞭解民主實作對於既有社團文化的改變。 Civic associations are regarded as a foundation of democracy. In this article, we examine the relationship between civic associations and democracy by observing the operation of participatory budgeting (PB) in the project of community building. Participatory budgeting is a model of civic participation, where by engaging in community deliberations, ordinary people can decide how the budget will be allotted. Theoretically, a veteran community should have better PB performance than a rookie community, because the former is used to engaging with democratic processes. We found, however, that the veteran community demonstrated a more centralized political culture than the rookie community did. Consequently, the process and outcome of PB in the veteran community reflected the will of local elites. In contrast, the rookie community was more open to community members who owned more authority to decide the budget. We argue that the reasons behind this difference are the constraints of the rules and procedures of community building, the emergence of the community hero, and the resources that a community has. We suggest that future studies can focus on the influence of different political cultures in various civic associations on democratic practices and how democratic practices shape the political cultures of civic associations.