Old Boys or New Kids in Town? The Legacies of the Developmental State in Korean Welfare Reforms

Abstract

This paper highlights the important roles of bureaucrats in developing and implementing Korean welfare reforms, which previous studies have overlooked or under-evaluated. It shows that developmental ideas and policy preferences established during the developmental phase of the country’s post-war history have continued to play a critical role in determining the nature and extent of Korean welfare reforms. Examples of such developmental ideas and preferences include those favouring work-incentive contributions and self-support discipline, both of which economic bureaucrats have consistently advocated even after the Korean developmental state was transformed into more liberalised governance. Examining two welfare innovations in Korea, this study concludes that embedded values do not easily perish and dominant values within a bureaucracy can filter, shape and restrict policy demands from civil society. In particular, the findings indicate that following the political decisions of the executive, Korean bureaucrats have enjoyed considerable autonomy in the phase of making up enforcement ordinances and regulations with the rationale for growth strategy in the post-developmental era.

Keywords:

• South Korea
• developmental state
• bureaucracy
• Korean welfare reform
• embeddedness
• civil society

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Social Policy Association Annual Conference in Sheffield on 14–16 July 2014. The authors are grateful to the journal’s anonymous referees and the Regional Editor for improving the paper.

Notes

1. The Korea Labour Institute (KLI) is a government-funded research institute under the Office of the Prime Minister.

2. The FKTU, founded in 1946, was long regarded as a government-controlled instrument with more moderate views than the KCTU, which was seen as holding more radical views.

3. The unemployment rate of 7 per cent in 1998 was very high and extraordinary in the Korean context, as the unemployment rate in the 1980s and 1990s was very stable at 3 per cent.

4. The total number of members of the National Assembly was 299 and the bill was co-proposed by members from the ruling party and opposition parties.