在政治參與的研究領域上，政治學者的關注焦點，向來集中在歐、美先進國家，直到六十年代中葉以後，方才逐漸推展到亞洲、非洲、及拉丁美洲等「發展中國家」。研究領域的嶄新推展，當然易於引起舊有概念、通則、模型、或理論是否適用的問題，從而激發出政治參與研究上的「舊意象」與「新意象」的轉換課題，並惹起一些有關方法論的研究爭議。在這些仁智之見中，歷來最受囑目而足以「自成一家之言」的論著，莫過於Samuel P. Huntiongton的一系列著作了。本文的主要目的，乃就「發展中國家」的政治參與，分析Samuel P.Huntington的立論基礎，從而說明各種難以抉擇的參與模型，以期釐清某些困擾界已久的基本爭端。本文的分析，將從「政治參與的意義轉折」、「發展性的自由模型」、以及「階段性的參與模型」等三個重要層面，逐一分別進行。

The processes by which electoral and other forms of political participation spread in the Western industrial democracies have fascinated political scientists for a century and a half. Until the mid-1960s, the political participation of Asia, Africa and Latin America have attracted the interests of political scientists. Perhaps the most striking evolution, however, has been in the progressive - though still incomplete and contested - shift in our basic conception of participation from an older to a newer image. The pioneer works by Samuel P. Huntionton on political participation in developing countries was a major stimulant to the image shift. The inconsistencies of the two images may still be influencing our research designs. The aim of this article is to evaluate the fundamental thesis of Samuel P. Hungtington's theory and variety of alternative models, and on the basis of this, to clatify some of the methodological peoblems generated by the image shift.