20世紀初迄今，自由社會中政治運作模式大致為多元論和公共選擇論所描述的型態，它們所標榜的價值之一就是「參與」。但就本文的分析，多元論和公共選擇論的民主政治建築在自利取向的利益共謀基礎上，它們並不能夠促成實質參與，也因而難以實現社會公正。此種自利取向的民主政治，幾與傳統西方政治思想所嚮往的「求善的治理（善治）」背道而馳，也經常導致壟斷性的政治操作，不僅分配的權力往往掌握在少數政治精英之手，更重要的是分配的結果可能嚴重違背人民的期望。因此在 20世紀末葉，主張直接民主或實質參與的呼聲日隆，自利取向的民主政治正朝以實質參與為基礎的公民治理轉型。本文將以公民意識與社群觀念為哲學基礎，並以真誠對話為理論基礎，提出所謂實質參與的公共治理。本文的鋪陳架構如後：第一、從哲學以及理論與實踐層面分析自利取向的民主政治；第二、再從哲學以及理論與實踐層面省思自利取向的民主政治之限制；第三、闡述實質參與的公共治理之哲學基礎；第四、提出實質參與的公共治理之理論基礎與實踐原則；第五、評價實質參與的公共治理之可行性及其對民主政治的貢獻。最後，綜合以上分析提出總結。

Since the early 20th century, the dominant theories and practices in western politics tend to be about pluralism and public choice; among them the idea of “participation” is most important value. However, pluralism and public choice are based on self-interested individualism which may not really accelerate the authentic participation and achieve social equity. This self-interested democracy on the contrary goes against “good governance”, an idea embedded in western democracy and always leads to monolithic politics of manipulation — a monopolized distribution by political elites and the result of distribution contravenes the public expectations. As a result the advocacy of direct democracy which focuses on authentic participation in governing process has grabbed people’s attentions, and citizens’ direct participation in policy making and even in implementation has became a trend in which every citizen’s authentic participation in policy process was not mere “a story” or “an idea”. The subject matter of this article, therefore, aims to argue that citizens’ direct participation in governing process must to be built on discourses that take cautious approaches to self-interested individualism and theories of community, discourses that have derived from the orthodoxy of western political thought from ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle’s politics to the rise of modern political science.