A Study on Factors Influencing Taiwanese Youngsters to Be Voluntarily Enlisted

• Main Authors: Yu-Chen Liou, 劉禹承
• Other Authors: Chian Wang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/13321711816248316846

碩士 === 逢甲大學 === 公共政策研究所 === 102 === In December 2011,the Legistive Yuan passed an amendment to the Military Service Act,which aimed to transform Taiwan’s military service from conscription to an all-volunteer service by 2015.It was originally scheduled to recruit around 28,000 voluntary soldiers by the end of 2013.But in the first eight months of this year,only 4,200 have reported to their military units,according to a report released by the Ministry of National Defense(MND).Due to these unsatisfactory recruitment results,MND,which originally set a goal to phase out the decades-old military conscription policy by the end of 2015, has decided to push the deadline back to the end of 2017.As it can be seen from the above mentioned,whether the recruitment goes smoothly is the key to success of volunteer service.Thus this thesis tries to explore the factors influencing Taiwanese youths to join the armed forces,based on three dimensions of ‘policy factors’,‘environmental factors’,and‘target group’.Below are some conclusions: 1. The current dual system that comprises both conscription and volunteer service is approved,but the four-month term of conscription is too short to bring forth any remarkable effects. 2. Salary and fringe benefits,as well as career planning,live up to social desirability. 3. Lifelong learning policies are beneficial to recruitment and could help improve the quality of personnel. 4. Establishing better internal management could help recruit voluntary soldiers. 5. Advice from parents are more influential than that from teachers or peers. 6. News coverage or public opinions actually have little effect on those who choose to be voluntarily enlisted or not. 7. Pay incentives carry more weight with lower-class families than middle-class or above . 8. Joining up is good for meeting the needs and self-actualization. According to these above,we would like to offer some suggestions for subsequent reforms of the military service policy as a reference: 1. The military service should uphold the current dual system,but the term of conscription should be extended to one year at least. 2. The term of volunteer service should be shortened to 2-3 years,rather than the current period of four years. 3. Recruiting campaigns should focus more on parents so as to enhance their understanding of volunteer service. 4. Try hard to improve rules and regulations about the internal management,and make sure they are implemented well.