A Study of the Emergence of Welfare Cleavages in South Korea

This study aims to trace the cause of an emerging welfare cleavage under circumstances where discourses on economic growth have been dominant in Korean politics. On the basis of the theories of interaction between changing social structure and social-norm dynamics, this paper explores the causes of an emerging welfare cleavage in the case of South Korea during the late 2000s. To analyze the change of economic structure and public awareness regarding public welfare, I used the data of macro-economic indicators and public opinion polls and utilized press releases to analyze discourses of political actors.The linked-policies effects of an immature “developmental welfare regime” and neo-liberal economic policies caused social polarization and expansion of the poverty stratum in the course of a slowdown in economic growth in the 1990s and foreign exchange crisis in 1998. The existing norm (i.e., economic growth could solve problems concerning people's livelihood) that had been maintained in the era of rapid economic growth was weakened. A conflict between an education superintendent and the Gyeonggi-do Provincial Council triggered a debate on free meals and welfare in 2009. Civil society groups were organized on a national scale, and they started a discourse struggle to replace individual interests with public interests and to obtain social legitimacy. Political parties gradually accepted the welfare issue as the primary electoral pledge for their political interests after public preference regarding growth and distribution changed when confronted with political crises.This study draws an implication that general factors affecting Western welfare states (e.g., power alliance and democratic institutions) influence East Asian welfare states by analyzing the case of South Korean welfare politics. It means that studies of East Asian welfare states can use explanatory building blocks partly from existing welfare theories rather than stressing the exceptionalism of East Asian welfare states. However, owing to the different economic and political structures of East Asian states from those of Western countries during the formative stage of welfare states, studies of East Asian welfare states need to consider path dependency in the historical context of East Asian political economy.