我國國父孫中山先生的治國思想甚為重視地方自治。他曾說，地方自治者國之基也，礎不堅則國不固。基本上，不論社區發展或鄉鎮治理都應是地方自治的重要環節，隨時代演進與變遷，社區發展或鄉鎮治理都成為政府政策或行政工作的重要項目與工具。從社區發展立場，社區發展需關懷人民生活品質提昇，這主張從經濟、社會、政治與教育文化等各個層面進行全面性發展展望未來，不論是社區發展或鄉鎮治理，都須借助孫中山先生的「地方自治」概念，以發揚居民的自動與自發精神。另外，運用「治理概念」，讓政府、居民、公益團體（或企業）這三者的協同並進與合夥關係，使政府不再居於領導地位而是居於監督者或領航者的角色，來調度公益團體（或企業）的資源並喚起民眾自我改善的熱情，也許反而是施政上的一大亮點。

Sun Yat-sen, the father of Republic of China (ROC), values the concept of local self-government in his philosophy of governing a country. He once said that local self-government is the basis of a country, and without it the country will be frail. Basically, community development and township governance should both be the important parts in local self-government, and with the progress of time, both of which become important items and tools in government policy and administrative work. From the position of community development, it is necessary to concern about promoting the quality of life of the people which envisions the future through comprehensive development of every aspect from the economy, society, politics and education. The idea of community development and township governance are the two important parts in the concept of local self-government and they both can evoke the spontaneous spirit of the inhabitants. Besides, we should use the ＂concept of governance＂ to bring together the government, inhabitants and NPOs (or enterprise) and form a cooperative relationship. In this way, the government should be the supervisor or navigator in lieu of the leading role to deploy resources and arouse people's enthusiasm of self-improvement and this may be the highlight in governance.