今日台灣是以定期、自由而公平的選舉來決定政權誰屬。以衡量民主體制的基本尺度而言，少有人會質疑台灣不是民主。但在2000年總統大選之後，台灣就陷入嚴重的民主治理危機，甚至動搖了新興民主體制的正當性基礎。經驗證據顯示，政權輪替後，台灣民眾對於民主實際運作的滿意程度、民主體制內主要機構的信任度、以及對於民主體制優越性的信念，皆明顯下降。台灣能否走出此一困境，要看2004年3月總統大選及2004年年底立法院選舉是否能幫助台灣找回主流價值，重建民眾對民主的信心。台灣的民主前景最終有賴於政黨領袖們能建立行政與立法機關間，以及政黨間的制度化協商機制，並在政治菁英間培養出「共識型」的政治文化。

Regular, free and fair elections determine nowadays who comes to power in Taiwan. So far as the basic criteria for a democracy are concerned, Taiwan today is undoubtedly a democratic state. However, ever since the presidential election of 2000, Taiwan has been entangled in a crisis of democratic governance that even shakes the legitimacy base of her new democratic regime. Empirical evidence shows that, after the DPP's takeover, people's satisfaction with the actual performance of Taiwan's democracy, their trust in the major institutions of democracy, and their faith in the superiority of such a regime, have all fallen noticeably in Taiwan. Whether or not Taiwan can come out of the predicament depends on the results of both the presidential election scheduled for March and the reelection of the Legislative Yuan at the end of 2004. But our hope lies eventually in the capability of party leaders to institutionalize the mechanism of dispute settlement between the executive and legislative branches as well as among political parties, and to cultivate the political culture of the "consensus model" among the political elite.