民主行政与行政民主有着不同的理论渊源,它们在参与的面向(主体)、追求的目标、主要论题域、主张的理性类型等各方面都存在显著差异。按照民主化程度的“高一低”两分法,从逻辑上可以建构出民主行政与行政民主的四种关系类型。传统中国倾向于“低度的行政民主+低度的民主政治和行政”。受制于现行政治体制,中国近年来在民主行政方向的改革成效甚微,而在行政民主方向的改革却进展顺利。然而,行政内部民主的发展并未能促进外部公民参与,反而带来了一系列困境和问题,其中最为突出的是“内在性”问题、地方政府权力出轨和行政的政治化。这些问题如果不能得到及时纠正,将严重侵蚀政府的合法性基础,带来政府治理危机。
With different theoretical origins, democratic administration and democracy in administration have apparent differences in participatory subjects, pursuing goals, main topics and proposals, etc. According to the dichotomy method of "high-low" level of democracy, four kinds of relations can be established logically between democratic administration and democracy in administration. Traditional China shows a tendency to "low-level administrative democracy plus low-level democratic politics and administration". Constrained by current political structure, China has achieved little in the reform of democratic administration in recent years while the reform of democracy in administration goes well. However, the development of inner democracy fails to encourage the involvement of outside citizens and otherwise leads to a series of dilemmas and problems, among which inherent problems, local government power abuse and political tendency of administration are protruding. If these problems can't be addressed properly, they will corrode government legitimacy and result in government administration crisis.