本文嘗試透過回顧及討論有關行銷理論，特別是公共部門行銷及社會行銷，並與民主政治理論進行對話，籍此建立一套有別於政府行銷的獨立「政策行銷」理論。本文定義政策行銷為：以行銷之技巧促進公共政策與社會需求之互配；其目的是要辨識、預測及滿足社會/公共需求，並以最少的權威手段及最多的受眾愜意手段推展及執行政策。這理論結合了公共部門行銷特殊考量及社會行銷的理論基礎而形成的。本文主張「政策行銷」是政策管理的一種模式，並非公共政策運作過程的一個環節。「政策行銷」也不會抵觸民主政治，而是民主對話的一種模式，更可促進慎思式民主的發展。本文利用2002~3年實施的「限塑政策」來審視本政策行銷理論，指出本理論的確切性。然而，本文亦認為「政策行銷」管理並非可以應用到所有公共政策領域，它也有一定之侷限性。「政策行銷」的使用也受制於公共組織的特性及培養政策企業家之困難上。

This article is an attempt to establish a distinct policy marketing theory through a literature review of marketing theories, especially those concerned with the public sector and social marketing, and a dialogue with the democratic theory. This study defines policy marketing as: adopting marketing techniques to hasten the matching between public policy and social demand; the policy marketing management is to identify, predict and satisfy social/public demands and it would be achieved with minimum of authoritarian means and maximum of recipient-friendly means. This theory takes the particular situation of the public sector into account and its foundation is laid on the social marketing theory. This article contends that policy marketing is a model of policy management, not simply as a single stage of policy process. Policy marketing does not go against democratic politics but is a mode of democratic dialogue and further hastens the development of deliberative democracy. This article makes use of the policy of limiting the use of plastic bags and disposable plastic tableware in 2002-3 to illustrate the relevancy of the model. However, this article does not argue for the universal applicability of the model and identifies its limits. The application of policy marketing is further shackled by the characteristics of the public organization and the difficulties to foster policy entrepreneurs.