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民主政治乃建構在選舉競爭之上，但選舉乃為零和遊戲，競爭過程難免造成社會對立與割裂。若果如此，民主政治根本就不可能存在人類社會達數百年之久。上個世紀中行為主義研究興起後，學者們透過草根研究，發現由於有公關與遊說空間的存在，選舉競爭並不必然產生決定性的影響。因為，原本依附落敗陣營的利益團體，還是有機會可以透過公關與遊說，使得選舉獲勝者不致一意孤行的推動某些政策。此一狀況讓民主競爭與社會穩定找到了妥協點，有些學者因此曾說，政黨在選舉期間卯足全力，利益團體則在選後傾巢而出，對當選者進行各種公關與遊說活動。

但公關與遊說並不廉價，為了取得管道接近執政者，付出的代價可能相當可觀。這無疑直接挑戰了民主政治的基本價值，因為選民依自己偏好選出執政者與民意代表便希望能為政策帶來改變，但候選人當選後卻總是被資源豐厚的財團與利益團體所包圍，選舉能帶來的改變似乎有限。且利益團體為了取得遊說管道，往往在政治獻金上毫不手軟，這也使得他們更容易獲得政客們的關注，民主政治高唱的「同票等值」，似乎只是口號。

    但儘管多數人都知道，公關與遊說是民主社會的必然產物，但由於其隱密性與公平爭議，外人卻很少真正了解公關與遊說的進行情況。在不同體制下的民主國家中，奉行權力制衡的美國，可能是揭露公關與遊說活動最多，而且最積極立法努力規範的國家。也因此，要瞭解公關與遊說的生態與活動狀況，美國學者的研究無異提供了重要的框架。從美國社會所看到的狀況，學生將可以理解，進行公關與遊說可以有那些可能的策略？如果企圖以法律加以規範，又可能面臨哪些困擾？公關與遊說對民主運作所造成的不公平現象，又將如何化解？授課者相信，美國的經驗將提供我國與其他民主國家，具有啟發性的思考

Electoral campaigns constitute the core of democratic institution. Yet, election is a zero-sum game, which inevitably creates social schism and confrontation. If this is the case, democracy should not be able to exist in human societies for many hundred years. The rise of political behavioralism in last century taught us, the operations of lobbying and public relations reduce the possible confrontation, which ameliorates the divided situation caused by electoral campaigns. When interest groups discover that they can have decision makers’ ears through public relations and lobbying even after their candidates lost the major election, they would continue their support to the regime and the society remains stabilized. It is thus said, that the political parties are busy during electoral campaigns, the interest groups take actions only after the result of election is publicized.

To conduct public relation and lobbying is not cheap. The price to buy the access to the decision maker is always high. This directly challenges the fundamental value of democracy, because the principle of “one man one vote” was undermined.

Worst of all, the ways people operate public relations and lobbying are always elusive, which makes students difficult to understand how the public decisions have been affected. Among the democratic countries, USA is probably the few which imposes effective disclosure regulations on the groups and individuals conducting public relations and lobbying for the government. As such, this class will heavily rely on the materials from US to study the activities of public relations and lobbying. 

授課內容

本堂課將講授以下主題：

民主政治的精隨：言論自由與結社自由

團體政治理論

媒體與利益團體發展

公關、遊說、與關說

遊說策略

金錢與選票：同票等值的虛幻

政治獻金的規範

美國政治行動會的發展

美國知名案例介紹

日本的金錢政治

我國的利益團體政治

不公平競爭的改善：公費選舉與獻金限制