An interpretive policy analysis of Taiwan’s community-oriented policy initiatives: the community empowerment centre plan and community capacity building

Taiwan is often considered a successful example of community development; however, its contribution has seldom been examined in the context of the theoretical evolution of community development within Western scholarship. This study argues that Taiwan’s community policy trajectory over the past five decades, encompassing the Community Development Plan, the Community Care Center Plan, and the Community Empowerment Center Plan, corresponds to and reinterprets major Western traditions of community development, community-based programmes, and community capacity building. This study employs interpretive policy analysis to compare three policy phases across six analytical dimensions, including policy objects, governing logics, intermediary roles, and forms of participation. The findings suggest that Taiwan represents one of the earliest cases to translate community capacity building from theoretical frameworks into explicit policy objectives and institutional practices, where capacity functions as a governing logic shaping professional judgement and implementation.