Policy Assemblage in Taiwan`s Child Protection Reforms: Policy Mixture, Policy Regime Change and Shifting Policy Challenges

Abstract

For the last two decades, East Asia has witnessed a wave of child protection reforms. In this paper, the case of Taiwan is selected for study because of its rich experiences in this respect. With the adoption of a policy assemblage perspective, this case study aims to explain Taiwan`s policy regime transformation and the shifting policy challenges. The interplay between the imported US policy model and local circumstances is found to have triggered the subsequent reform acts. In particular, with ongoing assembling of programmes borrowed from the USA, Taiwan has transformed the policy regime into a managerialist one. Moreover, through consideration of policy governance, the evolving policy regime is found to be fraught with challenges, in particular, retaining a sufficient and committed workforce for policy delivery. Based on the research findings, a more balanced reform approach towards child protection is recommended for the policy stakeholders of developing countries when pursuing relevant reform acts.