Democracy, Development and Health in Taiwan

This chapter traces the development of health care policy in postwar Taiwan. Specifically, it explores the political logic of social welfare reform, first under authoritarianism and then later during the period of democratization. This chapter finds, empirically, that continual health policy reform in Taiwan has resulted in a social policy trajectory towards greater inclusion in social welfare. This pattern is particularly evident after the initiation of the demo-cratic transition beginning in the late 1980s. Indeed, the processes of health care reform and health care policy making reflected important political changes, in both the structure of governance as well as in the place of social policy agendas within Taiwan’s larger developmental project. Simply put, democratization facilitated the birth of the welfare state in Taiwan.