國際兒童保護體制改革之制度論初探：以「兒童保護」與「家庭支持」典範交流為例，及其對臺灣兒保改革之啟發

Abstract

自上世紀，八○年代末期，先進工業國家興起了一波有關兒童保護制度的論辯。其中以英、美與歐洲國家，各自所擁護的「兒童保護」與「家庭支持」兩大政策典範，已然成為相關制度交鋒之所在。兩陣營間的改革對話，不僅引發了改革行動，也對本土兒保政策之興革醞釀了重要的政治意涵。在此脈絡下，本論文將採比較歷史研究方法，並立基「制度論」取向，初探兩個主要議題：一、為解析此兩大政策典範國家，在相互交流後，所帶來的體制改革政治。二、探討國際經驗，對本土兒保改革的啟發與挑戰。本論文研究發現指出，目前部分比較兒福政策學者所擁護的國際兒保體制，已漸趨同的說法，可能過於片面。相反地，由制度論觀點出發，將發現國際兒保改革仍朝多樣化體制發展。另在借鑑美國為主之經驗下，本土兒保體制改革已漸往管理主義模式發展，且仍面臨體制輸入不足而可能拖累體制能力及其效能之困境。

Since the late 1980s, there have been waves of debates about child protection systems among advanced industrial countries. In particular, child protection and family support regimes embraced by Anglo-Saxon countries and continental European ones, respectively, have been the focus of heated debate. Amidst the process, the two camps started to undertake policy exchange, which triggered their subsequent policy reforms. These international experiences have important implications for Taiwan`s own policy development. Having acknowledged this, an institutional approach is adopted in this comparative- historical paper to address two related research questions. The first concerns investigating the politics of child protection reforms in the case countries of the two aforementioned regimes following policy exchange. The other pertains to inquiring how international lessons have shaped Taiwan’s policy reforms as well as its related challenges in respect of policy implementation. With regards to the two major research findings, first, it is elicited that the convergence thesis of international child protection regimes put forward by some child welfare scholars is not sustainable. To the contrary, the analysis based on an institutional approach discovers a continuing diversity of policy regimes. As to the second finding, it is demonstrated that with heavily reliance on the importation of American reform experiences, Taiwan`s child protection regime has been transformed into a managerialist one. Regardless whether this arrangement is appropriate or not, it cannot be ignored that the inadequacy of system inputs could have serious repercussions regarding the capacity and efficacy of the post-reform child protection system on the island.