臺灣地方政府垂直分為省、縣（市）、鄉（鎮、市）三級，水平則在省級地方行政有臺灣省和福建省外，尚有台北市和高雄市兩個直轄市。但臺灣省和福建省政府雖然存在，功能卻已完全精簡，形同虛設，真正的第一級地方自治行政為臺灣省屬二十三縣市、福建省屬二縣市，以及面積相當的台北市和高雄市。中華民國在臺灣的管轄總面積不大，卻有總數達二十七個第一級地方自治行政，而在臺、問二省之十八個省轄縣下，尚有第二級地方自治行政鄉、鎮、市達三百餘個。未來則可能再依民族自治原則設置數個縣級原住民族自治區。 從強化政府行政效率的觀點，垂直地方分權宜走向二級政府，即廢臺灣省及福建省，並廢除鄉鎮市自治，倘廢除鄉鎮市自治有其困難者，則改革其選舉制度，以杜絕黑金；水平之各級地方行政則宜加整合，鄉鎮市由縣直轄，縣市間鼓勵跨域合作及整併，廢除資源壟斷之直轄市。省則改為區域行政協調機制，督導並協助縣市跨域治理及中央地方間之府際合作。而為因應臺灣現行需要，本文則建議臺閩地區重新分為四省治理。至於原住民族自治區，則建議採單一職能自治，不採現行地方自治型式，以免增加行政成本和財政資源排擠。

Taiwan's local governments are vertically divided to three levels-province, county (city) and township (town, city) and horizontally to four provincial level-Taiwan province, Fujian province, Taipei city and Kaohsiung city. Nowadays, Taiwan province and Fujian province exist merely in names, their organizations and functions are completely trimed and streamlined. Therefore the real first level local governments are 23 Taiwan provincial counties and cities, two Fujian provincial counties, Taipei city and Kaohsiung city. Although the size of the Republic of China in Taiwan is limited, it has been divided into way too many governmental districts. There are 27 first level local governments in Taiwan. Under 18 Taiwan and Fujian provincial counties, there are more than three hundred townships, towns and cities. In the future, the central government may build several county-level aboriginal autonomous regions based on aboriginal autonomic principle. To make our government more efficient, local government should be divided into two levels instead of three, which means to abolish Taiwan province, Fujian province and the autonomy of township (town, city). If abolishing the autonomy of township (town, city) is difficult, reforming local election system to avoid political corruption is another alternative. It is also better to integrate local administration horizontally, for example, township (town, city) should be directly under county's jurisdiction, more cross-county/city cooperation should take place and municipality. directly under the jurisdiction of the central government should be abolished for fair distribution of public resources. The role of provincial government would be better as an administrative coordinator for supervising and assisting cross-township governance and intergovernmental cooperation between central and local governments. Based on current situation in Taiwan, the author suggests dividing Taiwan into four provinces. As for aboriginal autonomous regions, single function autonomy rather than current multi-function autonomy may not only reduce administration cost but also allow fair financial distribution.