The Dynamics of Welfare Policy-Making in South Korea: Social Movements as Policy Entrepreneurs*

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of social movements in the creation and evolution of a welfare state in South Korea. We begin with a theoretical overview of the existing works on policy change, highlighting concepts such as ideas, policy paradigms, and windows of opportunity. We then examine state institutions, hegemonic policy paradigms, and the specific dynamics of welfare policy‐making during South Korea’s authoritarian period (1961–1987). Next, characterizing the democratic transition in 1987 and the economic crisis of 1997–1998 as “windows of opportunity,” we probe how social movements emerged as “policy entrepreneurs” and played crucial roles in building welfare institutions and promoting welfare policies. In particular, we focus on the role of social movements in legislating the National Basic Livelihood Security Act in 1999 and consolidating fragmented health insurance systems in 2000. We conclude that social movements in democratized South Korea have assumed the role of policy entrepreneurs, filling the vacuum left by the central government and elite bureaucrats in the field of social welfare policy‐making.

NGOs and Social Protection in East Asia: Korea, Thailand and Indonesia

“…National Health Insurance reform was accomplished by uniting all health funds in one global national fund. The National Pension System was also significantly extended to include the urban self-unemployed, the only group to be left out of Korea's pension program at the time (Fiori and Kim, 2011). The Roh Moo-hyun government continued constructing a welfare state in Korea, with the new slogan of 'participatory welfare'.…”

“…The integration of fragmented health insurance systems in 2000, although not a clear-cut victory for the advocacy coalition due to its incomplete financial integration, was another important contribution that NGOs made to social protection and welfare in Korea (Kwon, 2007: 11). In sum, NGOs in democratized Korea assumed the role of policy entrepreneurs in the field of welfare policymaking and strongly pressured the developmental welfare state to give greater attention to welfare, in a move away from the developmentalism of the past (Fiori and Kim, 2011).…”

“…With the help of a middle class that has emerged strong in the wake of recent democratization, NGOs in these nascent democracies often campaign for an expansion of the welfare state, broader protection for the poor, and equity in health care (Kwon, 2009: S20). In some cases, NGOs play the role of policy entrepreneurs to pressure the state to build welfare institutions and implement welfare policies (Fiori and Kim, 2011).…”

Long‐Term Care Insurance Adoption in East Asia: Politics, Ideas, and Institutions

“…The public discourse was overwhelmed with diverse perspectives and images about South Korea's population aging since the 1990s (Park ). In public debates, however, the issue of LTC was soon linked to the Asian financial crisis and the public's concern with increasing social safety nets (Fiori and Kim ) as well as to discourses about family norms and filial piety (Park ). In contrast to Japan, social and political debates did not focus on the negative feedback of previous government policies, but on the need to expand the Korean welfare regime due to its inability to support the public in times of crisis.…”

Institutions, Incentives, and Policy Entrepreneurship

“…As an analytical tool, policy entrepreneurship is a causal mechanism of agenda setting. It starts at the micro level, looking at the success of individual “change agents” in overcoming collective action problems, and relates this to meso‐ or macro‐level changes in the political agenda (inter alia Botterill, ; Fiori & Kim, ; Howlett, McConnell, & Perl, ; Laffan, ). For example, Hacker () explains Canada's adoption of national Medicare with reference to entrepreneurs in provincial health ministries.…”