ABSTRACT
The Constitution of 1949 had already imposed a wide range of welfare responsibilities on the state. In health care, the National Health Insurance is the first universal welfare system with a target to cover all of the population in Taiwan. The Child Welfare Law of 1973 was the first Act in the field of personal social services in favour of a particular disadvantaged group of people. Then cames the Aged Welfare Law and the Handicapped Welfare Law in 1980, and the Youth Welfare Law in 1989. A sizeable literature and studies relating to the theories have been appearing in Taiwan, particularly focused on the privatisation of social welfare. Privatisation, decentralisation, family, and voluntary services are indeed signs that the government is trying to adopt a pluralist approach to social welfare and to share its welfare responsibilities with other sectors. Expansions in welfare programmes have often been in response to immediate political pressures.
