Indigenous political participation in the deliberative systems: the long-term care service controversy in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

Although research on the deliberative systems has been extensive, relatively little attention has been paid to indigenous deliberation. This article provides an analysis of how indigenous civic organizations use deliberative means to influence the policy decisions pertaining to indigenous lone-term care service and how indigenous deliberation and advocacy has helped in enhancing the deliberative capacity and forming the shared narratives of indigenous groups. Indigenous groups initiated the “grassroots civic forum”, promoted policy storylines, and invited various civic groups that provide multiple care services to share experiences. This enabled them to speak for the needs of indigenous elderly people, initiate dialogue with decision-makers and legislators, and connect with other organizations for advocating policy change. Deliberative forums and indigenous activism contribute to knowledge production and policy shift away from the cultural dominance and urban style of long-term care services towards cogovernance and coproduction of services. It also led to the amendment of the Indigenous Long-Term Care Service Law to better reflects indigenous difference. The continuous political involvement of indigenous organizations in the service policy and cogovernance of long-term care increases the opportunities of equal access to care service resources, which can be seen as the product of deliberation.

KEYWORDS:

• Deliberative democracy
• deliberative systems
• long-term care service
• political participation
• deliberative policy-making

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier draft of this article. Thanks also to John Dryzek and Davis Roger for insightful comments and inspirations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan.

Notes on contributors

Mei-Fang Fan

Mei-Fang Fan is professor at the Institute of Science, Technology and Society, National Yang-Ming University; researcher at the Risk Society and Policy Research Center of National Taiwan University. Her research interests include e environmental justice, deliberative democracy and governance. She is the author of Deliberative Democracy in Taiwan: A Deliberative Systems Perspective (Routledge, 2020). She has published articles in venues including Local Environment, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, and Public Understanding of Science.

Sheng-Chun Sung

Sheng-Chun Sung is a PhD student at Department of Communications Management, Shih-Hsin University. His research interests include social work and development, communications management, and social movement.