儘管民主作為當代普世價值的思想地位依舊不可械動，但來自亞洲、拉丁美洲、中東與非洲等全球各個第三世界地區的政治發展現況似乎顯示，不僅起自1970年代中期的所謂第三波浪潮，已出現可被蓋棺論定的跡象，甚至連流行的民主理論本身亦不無檢討空間。本文希望從「現實」與「理想」的對比，一方面突顯出既有理論的若干問題，其次則試圖突顯出政治制度運作過程中，必然得面對的社會結構挑戰與制度本身必須存在的適應性，然後藉此勾勒出某種更切實際的理論邏輯基礎。

Although democracy is now still the most popular and vital value in the world， contemporary political experiences of the Third World including Asia， Latin America， Middle East and Africa， have seems challenged so-called the Third Wave democratization and even the democratic theory itself. In this paper， we'll hope to compare the concept about realistic democracy with the mainstreamed idealistic democracy， and try to find some key problems of popular framework. However， we want to point out that the possibility to operate the institution is always more important than just to fulfill the final ideal-type of liberal democracy.