Crafting Compliance Regime under COVID-19: Using Taiwan's Quarantine Policy as a Case Study

One year after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, governments around the world adopt similar practices in containing the COVID-19 spread. Nevertheless, variation exists in the level of policy compliance, which directly contribute to policy success/failure across countries. As the pandemic continues, pandemic fatigue also decreases the public's willingness to comply. Increasing policy compliance during the remainder of pandemic has become a transnational concern. Using Taiwan's quarantine policy as an example, this article illustrates three aspects to craft an effective compliance regime to fight public health crises like COVID-19: (1) a comprehensive policy mix to reduce heterogeneous compliance barriers that impact different social groups; (2) constant and various policy communication with heterogeneous target audiences; and (3) leveraging and integrating street-level bureaucrats in the policy implementation stages. Taiwan's case provides several policy lessons for other countries: compliance regime is not driven by top-down enforcement but through the integration of policy design and implementation that remove all barriers for compliance. Taiwan's street level bureaucrats are the glue of the compliance regime. This article bears policy implications for policy makers around the world when aiming for increasing policy compliance.