IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/69574.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • Fleckenstein, Timo
  • Lee, Soohyun Christine

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Fleckenstein, Timo & Lee, Soohyun Christine, 2017. "Democratization, post-industrialization, and East Asian welfare capitalism: the politics of welfare state reform in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 69574, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:69574
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/69574/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ito Peng & Joseph Wong, 2008. "Institutions and Institutional Purpose: Continuity and Change in East Asian Social Policy," Politics & Society, , vol. 36(1), pages 61-88, March.
    2. Esping-Andersen, Gosta, 1999. "Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198742005.
    3. Ringen, Stein & Kwon, Huck-ju & Yi, Ilcheong & Kim, Taekyoon & Lee, Jooha, 2011. "The Korean State and Social Policy: How South Korea Lifted Itself from Poverty and Dictatorship to Affluence and Democracy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199734351.
    4. Ian Holliday, 2000. "Productivist Welfare Capitalism: Social Policy in East Asia," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 48(4), pages 706-723, September.
    5. Fleckenstein, Timo & Lee, Soohyun Christine, 2017. "The politics of labor market reform in coordinated welfare capitalism: comparing Sweden, Germany, and South Korea," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68210, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fleckenstein, Timo & Lee, Soohyun Christine, 2019. "Roads and barriers towards social investments: comparing labour market and family policy reforms in Europe and East Asia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103001, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Fleckenstein, Timo & Lee, Soohyun Christine, 2019. "The political economy of education and skills in South Korea: democratisation, liberalisation and education reform in comparative perspective," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87607, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Fleckenstein, Timo & Lee, Soohyun Christine, 2017. "The politics of labor market reform in coordinated welfare capitalism: comparing Sweden, Germany, and South Korea," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68210, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Arjan de Haan, 2013. "The Social Policies of Emerging Economies: Growth and Welfare in China and India," Working Papers 110, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    5. Ratigan, Kerry, 2017. "Disaggregating the Developing Welfare State: Provincial Social Policy Regimes in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 467-484.
    6. Sang Hun Lim, 2021. "Welfare state and the social economy in compressed development: Self‐sufficiency organizations in South Korea," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(5), pages 267-278, December.
    7. Seungwoo Han, 2023. "Welfare regimes in Asia: convergent or divergent?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-14, December.
    8. Ngai, L. Rachel & Pissarides, Christopher A., 2009. "Welfare policy and the distribution of hours of work," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28698, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Sam Hickey & Tom Lavers & Miguel Niño-Zarazúa & Jeremy Seekings, 2018. "The negotiated politics of social protection in sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2018-34, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. Frances McGinnity & Emma Calvert, 2008. "Yuppie Kvetch? Work-life Conflict and Social Class in Western Europe," Papers WP239, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    11. Maria Iacovou, 2013. "The relationship between incomes and living arrangements: variation between countries, over the life course, and over time," ImPRovE Working Papers 13/15, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    12. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/8807 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Armando Aliu & Bekir Parlak & Dorian Aliu, 2015. "Hybrid structures: innovative governance, judicial and sociological approaches," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 1747-1760, July.
    14. Bo Kyong Seo & Dayoon Kim, 2024. "THE HOUSING‐WELFARE REGIME AND THIRD‐SECTOR HOUSING IN HONG KONG AND SOUTH KOREA: A Historical Institutionalist Perspective," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(3), pages 442-462, May.
    15. Erik Stam & Roy Thurik & Peter van der Zwan, 2010. "Entrepreneurial exit in real and imagined markets," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 19(4), pages 1109-1139, August.
    16. Seán Ó Riain & Amy Erbe Healy, 2024. "Workplace regimes in Western Europe, 1995–2015: Implications for intensification, intrusion, income and insecurity," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 45(2), pages 415-446, May.
    17. Ilaria Rocco & Davide Girardi, 2024. "Giovani, background migratorio e ingresso nel mercato del lavoro regionale," ECONOMIA E SOCIET? REGIONALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2024(1), pages 87-101.
    18. Mahmud Rice, James & Goodin, Robert E. & Parpo, Antti, 2006. "The Temporal Welfare State: A Crossnational Comparison," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(3), pages 195-228, December.
    19. Eric Crettaz, 2011. "Why Are Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities more Affected by Working Poverty? Theoretical Framework and Empirical Evidence Across Welfare Regimes," LIS Working papers 564, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    20. Spies-Butcher, Ben & Bryant, Gareth, 2024. "The history and future of the tax state: Possibilities for a new fiscal politics beyond neoliberalism," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    21. Sarah K. Bruch & Janet C. Gornick & Joseph van der Naald, 2020. "Geographic Inequality in Social Provision: Variation across the US States," NBER Chapters, in: Measuring Distribution and Mobility of Income and Wealth, pages 499-527, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Democratization; Post-Industrialization; Welfare Capitalism; Developmentalism; Japan; South Korea; Taiwan.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:69574. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.