對照顧服務的需要，是人類作為生物皆無法迴避的問題。直到最近之前，台灣社會習慣性地以家庭內的性別分工安排作為這項問題的主要解方。不過，隨著已婚女性參與勞動市場的趨勢與家庭組成型態與內部的性別分工安排的變化，有越來越多的家庭必須透過家庭「之外」的照顧服務來解決內部成員對照顧服務的需要。本文將從「照顧體制」的概念來理解台灣社會在家庭制度「之外」對照顧服務需要所採取的回應措施。因此，本文並不把這些回應措施侷限在由國家透過稅收而建立的公共照顧體系。除了照顧服務供給者的角色之外，國家透過移轉性支付對市場照顧服務購買成本的財務分擔者角色、以及透過公權力運用對市場照顧服務品質，都在本文的考察範圍。最後，本文對台灣社會「照顧體制」的考察將涵蓋「實然」層面與「應然」層面。我們除了就現行的法規、與實際的作法，來分析現階段家庭、國家、市場在解決人們對照顧服務的需要上分別扮演的角色、與彼此間的關聯；我們還進一步從照顧任務分配的公平性，對這套由家庭、國家與市場共同組成的「照顧體制」的妥當性進行檢視。

The necessity of care services is the inevitable problem of human as living being. Until now, Taiwan has taken the gender division of labor within families as the main solution to such problem. However, as the social tendency of married women's increasing labor market participation contributes the change of family formation and the transformation of gender labor division within families, more and more families have to look for the resources 'outside' families to meet their members' needs for care. Based on the conception of 'care regime', our article tries to understand how the whole Taiwan society responds to its citizens' needs for care 'beyond' the family institution. Thus, our focus is not limited on the public care service system established by governmental taxation. Beside the provider of care services, the government may play the role of financial supporter through transfer payment, to share the financial burden which individual families bear when they consume the care commodities. And it may also exercise its exclusive state power to monitor the quality of care service as commodities. All the possible roles that government may play should be examined in detail. Finally, our examination on 'care regime' in Taiwan embraces two dimensions: one is the 'Is' question; the other is 'Ought to be' question. In 'Is' dimension, we explore the implications of the current relevant policies, legislations and programs, and understand the roles that family, government, and market respectively perform in the 'care regime'. In 'Ought to be' dimension, we attempt to analyze whether the distribution of care responsibilities is just under such 'care regime'.