The Development of Welfare Programmes

Abstract

This chapter aims to review the evolution of welfare programmes in South Korea, and it consists of two main parts. The first half investigates the characteristics of the South Korean welfare programmes (‘developmental welfarism’), such as the state’s role as a low social spender and a regulator, the prominent welfare role of the private sector, and the strong emphasis on self-reliance and human capital investment. The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, often considered the most critical national crisis since the Korean War in the early 1950s, provided a window of opportunity for policy change. To what extent have a series of welfare reforms after the 1997 crisis departed from the policy legacies of developmental welfarism? The second half of the chapter highlights the political dynamics behind the welfare reforms in South Korea. Welfare politics might be divided into three arenas or approaches: bureaucratic politics, partisan politics, and social politics. The three approaches are not mutually exclusive, but are instead theoretically and practically complementary. © Oxford University Press 2023. All rights reserved.