Hostname: page-component-cd4964975-xtmlv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2023-03-28T15:10:41.005Z Has data issue: true Feature Flags: { "useRatesEcommerce": false } hasContentIssue true
  • English

Democratization, post-industrialization, and East Asian welfare capitalism: the politics of welfare state reform in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2020

Timo Fleckenstein  and
Soohyun Christine Lee
Timo Fleckenstein
Affiliation:
Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, London, England
Soohyun Christine Lee*
Affiliation:
School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, England
*
*Corresponding author. Email: S.C.Lee@leeds.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions[Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This review article provides an overview of the scholarship on the establishment and reform of East Asian welfare capitalism. The developmental welfare state theory and the related productivist welfare regime approach have dominated the study of welfare states in the region. This essay, however, shows that a growing body of research challenges the dominant literature. We identify two key driving factors of welfare reform in East Asia, namely democratization and post-industrialization; and discuss how these two drivers have undermined the political and functional underpinnings of the post-war equilibrium of the East Asian welfare/production regime. Its unfolding transformation and the new politics of social policy in the region challenge the notion of “East Asian exceptionalism”, and we suggest that recent welfare reforms call for a better integration of the region into the literature of advanced political economies to allow for cross-fertilization between Eastern and Western literatures.

Keywords

democratizationpost-industrializationwelfare capitalismdevelopmentalismJapanSouth KoreaTaiwan
Type
Review Article
Information
Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 36 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abe, A. K. (2010). The changing shape of the care diamond: The case of child and elderly care in Japan (Gender and Development Programme Paper no. 9). Geneva: UNRISD.Google Scholar
Ahn, S.-H., & Lee, S. S.-Y. (2012). Explaining Korean welfare state development with new empirical data and methods. Asian Social Work and Policy Review, 6(2), 67–85.Google Scholar
An, M. Y., & Peng, I. (2016). Diverging paths? A comparative look at childcare policies in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Social Policy & Administration, 50(5), 540–558.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aspalter, C. (2006). The East Asian welfare model. International Journal of Social Welfare, 15, 290–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, P. (1990). The politics of social solidarity: Class bases of the European welfare state 1875–1975. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boling, P. (2015). The politics of work-family policies: Comparing Japan, France, Germany and the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonoli, G. (2005). The politics of new social policies: Providing coverage against new social risks in mature welfare states. Policy & Politics, 33(3), 431–449.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buchanan, P. G., & Nicholls, K. (2003). Labour politics and democratic transition in South Korea and Taiwan. Government and Opposition, 38(2), 203–237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calder, K. E. (1989). Crisis and compensation: Public policy and political stability in Japan, 1949–1986. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chang, C.-F. (2011). Workfare in Taiwan: From social assistance to unemployment absorber. In Chan, C. K. & Ngok, K. L. (Eds.), Welfare reform in East Asia: Towards workfare? (pp. 78–99). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chen, F.-L. (2010). Unemployment and the government's role in a risk society: A case study in Taiwan. In Chan, R. K. H., Takahashi, M., & Wang, L. L.-R. (Eds.), Risk and public policy in East Asia (pp. 115–131). Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Daly, M., & Rake, K. (2003). Gender and the welfare state. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Deyo, F. C. (1987). State and labour: Modes of political exclusion in East Asian development. In Deyo, F. C. (Ed.), The political economy of the new Asian industrialism (pp. 182–202). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Deyo, F. C. (1992). The political economy of social policy formation: East Asia's newly industrialized countries. In Appelbaum, R. P. & Henderson, J. (Eds.), States and development in the Asian Pacific rim (pp. 289–306). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1985). Politics against markets: The social democratic road to power. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999). The social foundations of postindustrial economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estévez-Abe, M. (2008). Welfare and capitalism in postwar Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estévez-Abe, M., & Kim, Y.-S. (2014). Presidents, prime ministers and politics of care – why Korea expanded childcare much more than Japan. Social Policy & Administration, 48(6), 666–685.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fell, D. (2004). Party politics in Taiwan: Party change and the democratic evolution of Taiwan, 1991–2004. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Fleckenstein, T. (2010). Party politics and childcare: Comparing the expansion of service provision in England and Germany. Social Policy & Administration, 44(7), 789–807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleckenstein, T., & Lee, S. C. (2014). The politics of post-industrial social policy: Family policy reforms in Britain, Germany, South Korea, and Sweden. Comparative Political Studies, 47(4), 601–630.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleckenstein, T., & Lee, S. C. (2017a). The politics of investing in families: Comparing family policy expansion in Japan and South Korea. Social Politics, 24(1). doi:10.1093/sp/jxw008CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleckenstein, T., & Lee, S. C. (2017b). The politics of labor reform in coordinated welfare capitalism: Comparing Sweden, Germany, and South Korea. World Politics, 69(1), 144–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleckenstein, T., & Seeleib-Kaiser, M. (2011). Business, skills and the welfare state: The political economy of employment-oriented family policy in Britain and Germany. Journal of European Social Policy, 21(2), 136–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fu, T.-H., & Hughes, R. (2010). New social risks and family change in Taiwan. In Chan, R. K. H., Takahashi, M., & Wang, L. L.-R. (Eds.), Risk and public policy in East Asia (pp. 75–87). Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Goodman, R., & Peng, I. (1996). The East Asian welfare states: Peripatetic learning, adaptive change, and nation-building. In Esping-Andersen, G. (Ed.), Welfare states in transition: National adaptations in global economies (pp. 192–224). London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggard, S. (2005). Globalization, democracy, and the evolution of social contracts in East Asia. Taiwan Journal of Democracy, 1(1), 21–47.Google Scholar
Haggard, S., & Kaufman, R. R. (2008). Development, democracy and welfare states: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Holliday, I. (2000). Productivist welfare capitalism: Social policy in East Asia. Political Studies, 48(4), 706–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, I. (2005). East Asian social policy in the wake of the financial crisis: Farewell to productivism? Policy & Politics, 33(1), 145–162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, I., & Wilding, P. (2003a). Conclusion. In Holliday, I. & Wilding, P. (Eds.), Welfare capitalism in East Asia: Social policy in the tiger economies (pp. 161–182). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, I., & Wilding, P. (2003b). Tiger social policy in context. In Holliday, I. & Wilding, P. (Eds.), Welfare capitalism in East Asia: Social policy in the tiger economies (pp. 18–36). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hong, I. (2014). Trends and determinants of social expenditure in Korea, Japan and Taiwan. Social Policy & Administration, 48(6), 647–665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, E., & Stephens, J. D. (2001). Development and crisis of the welfare state: Parties and policies in global markets. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hundt, D. (2009). Korea's developmental alliance: State, capital and the politics of rapid development. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Johnson, C. (1987). Political institutions and economic performance: The government-business relationship in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. In Deyo, F. C. (Ed.), The political economy of the new Asian industrialism (pp. 136–164). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, C. A. (1982). Miti and the Japanese miracle: The growth of industrial policy, 1925–1975. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, C. (1993). The Pacific challenge: Confucian welfare states. In Jones, C. (Ed.), New perspectives on the welfare state in Europe (pp. 198–217). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jung, D., & Park, C.-U. (2011). Welfare-work link in East Asia after the economic crisis: Korea and Japan since the 1990s. In Hwang, G.-J. (Ed.), New welfare states in East Asia: Global challenges and restructuring (pp. 90–107). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Jung, E.-H., & Cheon, B.-Y. (2006). Economic crisis and changes in employment relations in Japan and Korea. Asian Survey, 46(3), 457–476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamimura, Y. (2010). The tripartite relationship and social policy in Taiwan: Searching for a new corporatism? In Usami, K. (Ed.), Non-standard employment under globalization: Flexible work and social security in the newly industrializing countries (pp. 142–175). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kasza, G. J. (2006). One world of welfare: Japan in comparative perspective. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, B.-K. (2008). The Korean conservatives in democratic consolidation. In Friedman, E. & Wong, J. (Eds.), Political transitions in dominant party systems: Learning to lose (pp. 169–187). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kim, P. H. (2010). The East Asian welfare state debate and surrogate social policy: An exploratory study on Japan and South Korea. Socio-Economic Review, 8(3), 411–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, Y.-M. (2008). Beyond East Asian welfare productivism in South Korea. Policy & Politics, 36(1), 109–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhnle, S. (2004). Productive welfare in Korea: Moving towards a European welfare state type. In Mishra, R., Kuhnle, S., Gilbert, N., & Chung, K. (Eds.), Modernizing the Korean welfare state: Towards the productive welfare model (pp. 47–64). New Brunswick: Transaction.Google Scholar
Kwon, H.-J. (1997). Beyond European welfare regimes: Comparative perspectives on East Asian welfare systems. Journal of Social Policy, 26(4), 467–484.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwon, H.-J. (2009). The reform of the developmental welfare state in East Asia. International Journal of Social Welfare, 18, 12–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, H.-K. (1999). Globalization and the emerging welfare state: The experience of South Korea. International Journal of Social Welfare, 8(1), 23–37.Google Scholar
Lee, S. C. (2012). The transformation of East Asian welfare states: The politics of welfare reforms in South Korea (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
Lee, S. C. (2017). Democratization, political parties and Korean welfare politics: Korean family policy reforms in comparative perspective. Government and Opposition. doi:10.1017/gov.2016.44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, S. S.-Y. (2011). Labour market risks in de-industrializing East-Asian economies: The cases of Korea, Japan and Taiwan. In Hwang, G.-J. (Ed.), New welfare states in East Asia: Global challenges and restructuring (pp. 61–89). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. (1992). Gender and the development of welfare regimes. Journal of European Social Policy, 2(3), 159–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, J. (2009). Work-family balance, gender and policy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miura, M. (2012). Welfare through work: Conservative ideas, partisan dynamics, and social protection in Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noble, G. W. (2010). The decline of particularism in Japanese Politics. Journal of East Asian Studies, 10(2), 239–273, 360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD. (2011). Doing better for families. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J. (2008). Learning to lose is for losers. In Friedman, E. & Wong, J. (Eds.), Political transitions in dominant party systems: Learning to lose (pp. 109–126). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pempel, T. J., & Tsunekawa, K. (1979). Corporatism without Labor? The Japanese anomaly. In Schmitter, P. C. & Lehmbruch, G. (Eds.), Trends toward corporatist intermediation (pp. 231–270). Beverly Hills: Sage.Google Scholar
Peng, I. (2004). Postindustrial pressures, political regime shifts, and social policy reform in Japan and South Korea. Journal of East Asian Studies, 4(3), 389–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, I. (2009). The political and social economy of care in the Republic of Korea (Gender and Development Programme Paper). Geneva: UNSRID.Google Scholar
Peng, I. (2012). Social and political economy of care in Japan and South Korea. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 32(11/12), 636–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, I., & Wong, J. (2008). Institutions and institutional purpose: Continuity and change in East Asian social policy. Politics & Society, 36(1), 61–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peng, I., & Wong, J. (2010). East Asia. In Castles, F. G., Leibfried, S., Lewis, J., Obinger, H., & Pierson, C. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the welfare state (pp. 656–670). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ringen, S., Kwon, H.-J., Yi, I., Kim, T., & Lee, J. (2011). The Korean state and social policy: How South Korea lifted itself from poverty and dictatorship to affluence and democracy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenbluth, F., & Thies, M. F. (2010). Japan transformed: Political change and economic restructuring. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoppa, L. (2010). Exit, voice, and family policy in Japan: Limited changes despite broad recognition of the declining fertility problem. Journal of European Social Policy, 20(5), 422–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seeleib-Kaiser, M. (1995). The development of social assistance and unemployment insurance in Germany and Japan. Social Policy & Administration, 29(3), 269–293.Google Scholar
Seeleib-Kaiser, M., & Toivonen, T. (2011). Between reforms and birth rates: Germany, Japan, and family policy discourse. Social Politics, 18(3), 331–360.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seeleib-Kaiser, M., Van Dyk, S., & Roggenkamp, M. (2008). Party politics and social welfare: Comparing christian and social democracy in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar
Strøm, K. (1990). A behavioral theory of competitive political parties. American Journal of Political Science, 34(2), 565–598.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsai, P.-Y. (2011). The transformation of social risks: A case study of work-family balance policies in Taiwan (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford, Oxford.Google Scholar
Wade, R. (1990). Governing the market: Economic theory and the role of government in East Asian industrialization. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, G., & Goodman, R. (1998). Welfare orientalism and the search for an East Asian welfare model. In Goodman, R., White, G., & Kwon, H.-J. (Eds.), The East Asian welfare model: Welfare orienalism and the state (pp. 3–24). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Won, S.-Y., & Pascall, G. (2004). A confucian war over childcare? Practice and policy in childcare and their implications for understanding the Korean gender regime. Social Policy & Administration, 38(3), 270–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wong, J. (2004). Healthy democracies: Welfare politics in Taiwan and South Korea. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Woo-Cumings, M. (2007). After the miracle: Neoliberalism and institutional reform in East Asia. In Woo-Cumings, M. (Ed.), Neoliberalism and institutional reform in East Asia (pp. 1–31). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Yang, J.-J. (2013). Parochial welfare politics and the small welfare state in South Korea. Comparative Politics, 45(4), 457–475.Google Scholar
Zhu, Y. (2005). Unemployment in Taiwan: Globalisation, regional integration and social change. In Benson, J. & Zhu, Y. (Eds.), Unemployment in Asia (pp. 78–96). London: Routledge.Google Scholar