Suchergebnisse

Globalisation, and its possible impacts, has been widely discussed and debated in Taiwan. The economic technocracies argue for globalisation, as a triumph of the free market and minimum state intervention, through measures of tax cuts, privatisation, deregulation, and so forth, as required to secure Taiwan's economic development in the future. However, rising unemployment accompanied by the new poverty requires more state provisions of social welfare. A strange policy orientation mixing tax cuts with welfare increases is proposed that precisely demonstrates the dilemma of the state between global competition and social reform. This is now a great challenge for Taiwan to balance economic and social requirements.

ABSTRACTThis paper explores Taiwan's welfare development from its specific politico‐economic situation. Although education and public health are well developed in Taiwan and social insurance is expanding to cover more and more Taiwanese people, the govenmental welfare effort is still too low to meet the welfare needs of the public. This is especially so given our discovery that military servicemen and related groups receive over 70% of the welfare expenditure of the central government while the disadvantaged receive only around 3%. Furthermore, political crises are often accompanied by a significant growth in social expenditure, implying that the purpose of state welfare is to maintain the stability of the Taiwanese state rather than to protect the well‐being of Taiwanese people. Political isolation forces the Kuomintang (KMT) to secure Taiwan's role in the international community via economic growth. The development of state welfare cannot be allowed to have a negative effect on this highest priority. The limited resources, therefore, are allocated to economic goals as well as to the KMT–state apparatus in order to keep the KMT in power. However, the democratization of Taiwanese politics since the 1980s has forced the KMT to consolidate its legitimacy from the people and the improvement of social welfare is one measure for this purpose. Whether or not Taiwan becomes a Western‐style welfare state through the expansion of state welfare in the near future, it furnishes a useful example with which to examine existing welfare theories.

Key Features:Critically examines the social development issues and challenges faced by societies in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong KongPresents a wide-ranging discussion on current and relevant issues pertaining to the effects of globalization and the prevailing global economic crisisOffers different perspectives on how societies in Greater China manage the challenges with detailed analysis on the strategies adopted to resolve them.

AbstractSince the beginning of the 21st century, Taiwan has transitioned towards democratization. In 2000, the young opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), defeated and replaced the authoritarian ruling party, the Kuomintang (KMT), for the first time. However, this critical political change failed to meet the social reform expectations of the people, which resulted in the triumph of the KMT in the presidential election in 2008. The same story was repeated in 2016 when the KMT and President Ma Ying‐jeou lost their legitimacy to the public, and they were replaced by the current President Tsai Ing‐wen, the DPP leader. This article interprets the extremely difficult policy choice of Taiwan towards China and how its relationship with China shapes social development issues behind these political changes. Democratization has long been regarded as the main driving force for East Asian welfare development, especially with the cases of Taiwan and Korea. However, in conclusion, this article argues the importance of globalization in shaping domestic politics and managing welfare expectations.

Healthcare service is a highly trusted field but necessitates a trust relationship with service users. In this field, medical social workers are crucial service providers. In this study, exploratory research was conducted to investigate the meaning of trust from the perspective of medical social workers in Taiwan. The findings are presented as follows: (a) relationship-based trust, (b) trust in the medical system and (c) the potential role for trust and anti-oppressive practices. According to the research results a conclusion was deduced and practical recommendations are proposed.