After democratic transformation, the integrity of the Taiwanese government failed to live up to expectations. Why did this happen? This article first applies the principle-agent theory to review the basic model of democratic governance, and then uses the survey data from the Global Corruption Barometer (published by Transparency International) and the Government Integrity Subjective Index (published by the Ministry of Justice in Taiwan) to identify the major sources of corruption. Finally, this article emphasizes that Taiwan needs to exert greater effort on promoting integrity and fighting against corruption, especially with a focus on the elected officials and political appointees. In this process, the citizens cannot rely upon their agents, but must play a more active and aggressive role in democratic governance.