社區參與是鄉村發展計畫的重要手段，但一些開發中國家的研究指出有些社區參與計畫僅滿足社區內權力階層的利益，忽略婦女及窮人的需要及參與機會，反而加劇社區內不同團體在社經層面的差距。基於賦權觀點，本文分析六龜和茂林兩鄉地方領袖與一般居民對社區發展目標和過程的差異。計有35人經地位威望法被選為地方領袖，其中大多數是男性地方民選官員與民代。本研究在2003年和2004年舉辦四場地方發展座談會，並記錄與會者發言意見，研究發現，地方領袖與一般居民對地方發展的目標與方法的看法一致，但在公眾參與的表達態度和技巧上有明顯差別。就一般居民而言，理想的賦權與其實際仍有距離。

Community participation is an important approach for rural development projects; however, some studies in developing countries pointed out that public participation projects might satisfy only those in power and neglected the needs and opportunities of women and the poor. The kind of projects even deepened the socio-economical gap among different groups in a community. Based on the viewpoint of empowerment, the study analyzed the differences of aims and process of public participation between local leaders and residents of Liukuei and Moulin communes. There were 35 local leaders identified by positional-reputation method, and most of them were male and reputed due to their political status. Four local forums on communal development were hold in 2003 and 2004 and the relevant opinions were recorded. From forums, we found that local leaders and residents had consistency of the goal and means of communal development, but they had a significant gap of the attitude and communication skill of implementing public participation between each other. For common residents, there was certain distance from the ideal empowerment.