ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Taiwan's welfare development. It looks at the specific characteristics of its welfare system, comparing it to traditional European welfare states and its East Asian neighbors. The chapter summarizes the historical development and regime characteristics of social welfare in Taiwan, as well as examining the policy debates during democratization with a special focus on changes and continuity in the Taiwanese welfare regime. Despite the impact of political democratization, transforming the state structure and opening up more opportunities for social policymaking, the state's capacity for welfare provision is still confined by the institutional context of occupation-based social insurance. Democratic progressive party rule during 2000–2008 signified a new era of Taiwanese democratization, while also raising expectations for the provision of social welfare. The 2012 guideline states that the country's social welfare policy is based on the Constitution's essential protection of basic human rights of citizens.
