Developmental Social Policy,Social Welfare Services and the Non‐profit Sector in South Africa

The potential and challenge of constructing a democratic developmental welfare state through synergistic state‐civil society relations is the focus of this article. The author argues that while South Africa's pluralist approach, involving a leading role for the state in partnership with voluntary organizations, is a viable policy option to address the country's developmental challenges, anomalies between policy proclamations and actual practice raises questions about the efficacy of the partnership model and the gendered nature of welfare provision. Key governance issues and challenges, namely financial policies and institutional capability, underlie current failures in the delivery of welfare and care services, resulting in the non‐realization of these constitutionally guaranteed social rights. Further public action is needed to remedy the situation. Non‐profit organizations can advocate for policy reforms and challenge the instrumental nature of state‐civil relations and the abrogation of state responsibility for welfare services in contemporary South Africa.     

The social welfare reform during the progressive regimes of South Korea: Theoretical implications

This study assesses the social welfare reform during the progressive regimes of South Korea (hereafter Korea) led by President Kim Dae-Jung (1998-2003) and President Roh Moo-Hyun (2003-2008), and considers its theoretical implications. Analysis of the social welfare reform under the two progressive governments has indicated that the reform did not produce the anticipated results. Although the Korean economy has grown rapidly along with a considerable increase in the national income per capita in comparison with that in the past, the country's social welfare system still remains significantly underdeveloped in all respects, relative to that of all the other OECD countries with similar economic power, let alone the advanced welfare states in Western Europe. This study maintains that the key reason for the inertia or status quo despite the significant efforts of both the governments to expand social welfare is explained in the Korean growth-first doctrine, which inherently considers that distribution hinders growth and that social policy is secondary to economic policy, thus limiting the choices of the country's decision makers, as has been the case all along since the developmental period. Given that the growth-first doctrine inherently regarded the relationship between growth and welfare as mutually exclusive, it was perhaps natural that the influence of the doctrine upon the social welfare policy of both the progressive governments would not be so positive. This suggests that path dependence is active in the case of the Korean social welfare policy, thus substantiating the validity of path-dependence theory.     

The Korean welfare state: a paradox of expansion in an era of globalisation and economic crisis

When the Asian financial crisis took a heavy toll on Korea in the late 1990s, policy makers responded by extending welfare policy. For many analysts, this was a paradoxical move, marking a fundamental reconfiguration of the social policy system. This article contests that interpretation. It examines the changes made to Korean social policy in recent years, and considers their impact on the Korean welfare state. It notes both that welfare extensions have been comparatively limited, and that they have often formed part of wider attempts to boost labour market flexibility. It thus concludes that limited expansion of the Korean welfare state is chiefly an attempt to bolster industrial competitiveness and economic growth. For now, Korea retains the productivist social policy orientation that has long characterised it. It also concedes, however, that in the future underlying social change, notably a rapidly ageing population, may prompt policy makers to make significant changes to the Korean welfare state.     

The Emperor's new clothes: South Africa's attempted transition to developmental social welfare and social work

This article critically interrogates the depth and quality of change of post‐apartheid welfare policy and social work practice towards a social development paradigm against the background of inequality and poverty in South Africa. It asks several questions: what kind of welfare system has the current welfare dispensation created? How far has it moved from a residual, ameliorative system to an institutional developmental system, in keeping with the developmental welfare paradigm? To what extent can residual provisions be transformed into developmental processes? What conditions are necessary for this to happen? The answers to questions such as these provide the basis for assessing South Africa's new developmental processes. The article highlights the fundamental contradictions in social development policy imperatives, which call for a marriage of economic and social considerations, and the internal contradictions across and within various welfare policies. Further, it argues that the government does not have the political will to bear the costs of the substantive change that the move towards developmental social work requires, choosing instead limited, individually targeted and ameliorative measures, such as increased social security spending. Thus, it suggests that ideological critique, consciousness raising and participation in public policy debates remain crucial for those who seek long‐term solutions to inequality and poverty in South Africa.     

Social protection for happiness? The impact of social pension reform on subjective well-being of the Korean elderly

Expanding the scope of the traditional indicators used to assess economic progress with measures of subjective well-being has been of growing importance in policy modeling. A recent Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi report argued that policy decisions and welfare evaluations should be approached from a broader perspective on well-being and take into account metrics derived from self-reports of living conditions. To this end, we evaluate the efficacy of the 2014 social pension reform in South Korea using various measures of subjective well-being. The South Korean government introduced a basic old-age pension in 2008 and doubled its monthly benefits in 2014. The reform in 2014 represents one of the largest social welfare expansions in South Korean history, with an aim to improve seniors’ quality of life. Using data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging, we estimate a matched difference-in-differences model that isolates the causal effects of the benefit increase attributable to the reform. Results show that the reform was associated with an average of 4.8–5.7% increase in financial satisfaction among beneficiaries, and that this correlation was more pronounced for retirees, seniors above age 70, and those at the bottom of wealth distribution. However, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that satisfaction with health status, parent-child relationship, and overall quality of life has improved in response. Our findings are in contrast to the past evidence on objective welfare gains associated with pension expansion. Taken together this study calls for the use of self-reported well-being data in policy evaluation.     

Street‐level discretion,emotional labour and welfare frontline staff at the Australian employment service providers

Despite the current controversial debates about discretion in public bureaucracies in general, and in welfare agencies in particular, the current literature on street‐level bureaucracy mainly assumes that discretion is a distinctive feature of the daily work of public servants. Nonetheless, a pertinent question has not specifically been asked in this literature, that is, given the context of privatisation and increased welfare conditionality in the welfare sector that are seriously challenging welfare frontline staff's commitment to social justice and human rights‐based practices, what are forms of street‐level discretion likely to contribute to improving the quality of welfare services? In this study, we attempt to address this question by exploring discretion displayed by welfare frontline staff in four Australian employment service providers. We argue that emotional labour, especially when being informed by critical empathy, is an important and effective form of street‐level discretion that welfare frontline workers can perform to better support welfare recipients and minimise the punitive aspects of welfare policy.     

Levels or worlds of welfare? Assessing social rights and social stratification in Northern and Southern countries

Since Esping‐Andersen's Three Worlds, it has become a truism of welfare state research that welfare states do not vary linearly along a single dimension but have to be conceptualized as multidimensional phenomena that cluster into types caused by the political economy of class coalitions. However, when moving beyond the 18 original countries of Esping‐Andersen's analysis, the situation is less clear. Although additional worlds have been identified in the Global North and the Global South, these are usually not conceptualized along the same dimensions as the original three worlds and are rarely empirically compared with them. This paper tackles these omissions by explicitly comparing Northern and Southern countries within Esping‐Andersen's framework. It poses the question whether the central insight of welfare state research, namely, that there are not just gradual differences between welfare states, but different types with qualitative differences, expands beyond classic welfare states. Based on newly generated data on social rights and social stratification, we employ cluster analysis with 45 Northern and Southern countries. This analysis produces mixed results. We do find different types of welfare states with qualitative differences, but these do not fully correspond to Esping‐Andersen's Three Worlds. Moreover, our findings also point to a conceptual issue in welfare regime research: regimes are not just defined and measured in terms of different logics of welfare provision but also take into account degrees of welfare stateism. We argue that this issue is poised to become ever more pressing with the geographical expansion of welfare state research.     

From Enlightened Self‐interest to Welfare Coalitions: Overcoming Identity‐based Tensions in the Israeli Welfare State

A common argument in the social policy literature is that ethnic and identity‐based heterogeneity undermines the welfare state. In part, this happens because of difficulties in the generation of broad social solidarity in diverse societies: solidarity which is allegedly necessary for sustaining public support for the welfare state. This study explores this argument's logic in the context of welfare state politics in Israel. Israel would appear to be a near‐perfect example of how heterogeneity strains social solidarity and, in turn, undermines the welfare state. Quite differently from most studies, however, this work's emphasis is not on public attitudes or voting, but on the political interaction between economically disadvantaged identity‐based minorities – specifically Arabs on the one hand and religious Jews on the other – in the welfare field. It is argued that shared interests enable extensive co‐operation among political elites in the welfare field despite religiously‐ and nationally‐based antagonism.     

Welfare regime change – or lack of change – in unemployment compensation

Drawing on theoretical accounts of institutional change, this study explored the politics of welfare regime transformation in regard to Turkey's unemployment compensation system. By using the institutionalist approach, the study shows that the process of welfare regime change was one of “institutional layering” of unemployment insurance (UI) over severance pay. Also, the study demonstrates that the economic bureaucracy played a key role in pushing the establishment of UI (state‐centric approach) in contrast to the class‐based organizations that focused their struggles on the severance pay scheme (power‐resource perspective). However, the economic bureaucracy preferred a rudimentary UI design, which prevented UI from undermining the vested interests behind the severance pay scheme. Furthermore, subsequent attempts at the reformation of the severance pay scheme were not successful because the social welfare bureaucracy lacked the capacity to develop a policy alternative to resolve the stalemate between the societal actors. Lastly, the study used the successful severance pay reform experiences of South Korea and Austria to locate the Turkish case within a broader comparative framework.     

Ageing Society Issues in Korea*

Korean society is facing unprecedentedly higher population ageing, particularly in the first half of the 21st century. The implications of population ageing have a much wider effect than the welfare of the elderly. From a broader and long‐term perspective, understanding population ageing may require a new paradigm. Korea has attempted to model its policies for ageing society on those of advanced welfare states, but as these no longer seem viable, Korean policy‐makers are searching for more effective and efficient measures to deal with its rapid ageing population. Reflecting a broader and long‐term perspective, the Korean government recently produced a comprehensive national policy plan to deal with the consequences of rapid population ageing. This article outlines the phenomenon of population ageing in Korea and the recent development of national policies for population ageing, describing the Korean comprehensive national policy plan for responding to it and examining major issues and problems related to developing and implementing the plan. This article finally suggests a new, age‐integrated social system approach to an ageing society.     

The Changing Shape of Welfare Policy in Korea: Analysis of Break Point in the Welfare Budget

This paper aims to investigate the welfare policy change in South Korea. Based on punctuated equilibrium theory, I analyze kurtosis and break point of the distribution of variation in the general government welfare budget. As a result, the change in welfare budget levels in South Korea has been quite moderate. But two break points were set in 1977 and 1999. These cutoff points are related with the change of the Korean Welfare State and clearly distinguished from different times. That is, the characteristics of structure that were built during these two time periods have lasted until now. Specifically, the responsibility of state in welfare is narrow. And the feature of employment‐friendly welfare policy was formed in 1977. Also, the focus on livelihood security and employment in welfare spending was constructed in 1999. The analysis of budget is a useful tool in examining the policy change. We expect to find more specific characteristics of the Korean welfare state including special accounts and funds in future.     

Dynamics of the Welfare Mix in the Republic of Korea: An Expenditure Study Between 1990 and 2001

Although non-State sectors have played an important role in people's welfare, their expenditures have usually been excluded from social policy studies when measuring the welfare efforts of a nation. This article experiments with a new approach synthesizing welfare mix research using an expenditure study as a tool and applies the model to the Korean case. It presents the following major findings: first, the welfare system of the Republic of Korea has presented a genuine welfare mix in which the role of non-State sectors has been of immense importance; and second, the dynamics of the welfare mix since 1997 have been largely due to the growing role of the State in social welfare, both directly and indirectly. Based on these findings, this article ultimately urges the necessity of the welfare mix approach in comparative social policy research.     

Transforming child and family services in urban communities in South Africa: lessons from the South

Post‐apartheid, South African agencies have been required to shift their services in fundamental ways, including offering services in previously un‐resourced areas, honouring the rights of children and families, ensuring that users, staff and governing bodies are representative of the population and providing developmental social welfare services in place of child protection‐oriented interventions only. A study of urban South African child welfare agencies provides insight into the complex task of managing and leading change. In view of overloaded change agenda and resource constraints, managers focused on effecting incremental change and prioritized the most ‘rewarding’ change efforts. Transforming practice towards a developmental approach was less successful. Structural interventions were also not prioritized. Child welfare agencies internationally face demands to transform in response to the effects of local change and globalization. The study's insights might resonate with agencies working for change in other societal contexts.     

The influence of ideational contests of social policy on government welfare efforts

There has been limited empirical research on the interaction between media influence and governments' decision-making in the social policy field. Drawing on a wider study of the ideation of poverty in South Korea, this research tests if policy ideas represented in the media have bottom-up framing effects on policymaking and can be a reliable indicator of the government's social policy efforts. This study analysed the editorials of major Korean daily newspapers, over the period of a decade from 2000 to 2009. The analysis outcomes identified a significant correlation between the extent of poverty discussions in the media and government welfare spending.     

The Pro‐Elderly Bias of Social Policies in Israel: A Historical‐Institutional Account

Accelerated population ageing and high voting turnout rates among elderly voters in recent decades have led many social scientists to predict increasing pro‐elderly biases in the social policies of mature welfare states. This article investigates and empirically estimates the evolving age orientation of social policies in Israel, which is a comparatively young society that has nevertheless aged significantly since independence in 1948. We present a historical and qualitative overview of the development of policy efforts towards different age groups and develop an Elderly/Non‐elderly Spending Ratio at four points in time between 1975 and 2005. We argue that in its first five decades, the Israeli welfare state uniquely combined a broadly universalistic and citizenship‐based outlook with a number of significant particularistic spending biases towards specific subgroups. But from the second half of the 1990s onwards, the pro‐elderly policy bias of the Israeli welfare state has strongly increased. These findings support Lynch's thesis for 21 OECD countries, which posits that a shift from a universal to a more occupationally based institutional model of welfare will result in a higher pro‐elderly bias of social spending.     

Envisioning the Third Sector's Welfare Role: Critical Discourse Analysis of ‘Post‐Devolution’ Public Policy in the UK 1998–2012

Welfare state theory has struggled to come to terms with the role of the third sector. It has often categorized welfare states in terms of the pattern of interplay between state social policies and the structure of the labour market. Moreover, it has frequently offered an exclusive focus on state policy – thereby failing to substantially recognize the role of the formally organized third sector. This study offers a corrective view. Against the backdrop of the international shift to multi‐level governance, it analyses the policy discourse of third sector involvement in welfare governance following devolution in the UK. It reveals the changing and contrasting ways in which post‐devolution territorial politics envisions the sector's role as a welfare provider. The mixed methods analysis compares policy framing and the structural narratives associated with the development of the third sector across the four constituent polities of the UK since 1998. The findings reveal how devolution has introduced a new spatial policy dynamic. Whilst there are elements of continuity between polities – such as the increasing salience of the third sector in welfare provision – policy narratives also provide evidence of the territorialization of third sector policy. From a methodological standpoint, this underlines the distinctive and complementary role discourse‐based analysis can play in understanding contemporary patterns and processes shaping welfare governance.     

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

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.     

Welfare State Changes and Outcomes – The Cases of Portugal and Denmark from a Comparative Perspective

It is well known that welfare states ensure a certain level of social protection affecting levels of well‐being and the extent of inequalities in society. Changes within crucial domains of social policy, such as education, health, or social protection, have, therefore, a major effect upon individuals' opportunities. In this article I compare the effects of these changes in two countries from the mid‐1980s to the financial crisis of 2008. Portugal that was a latecomer in welfare state development and Denmark was at the forefront of de‐commodification and universalization of social rights. The conclusion of this article is that income inequality has been steadily increasing in Danish society; while in Portugal, despite improvements in many social domains (healthcare, poverty alleviation, unemployment protection), problems of inequality remain deeply embedded in the country's social and institutional structures.     

'Sifting the Wheat from the Chaff': A Two-dimensional Discriminant Analysis of Welfare State Regime Theory

Welfare state modelling has long been an important strand within comparative social policy. However, since the publication of Esping‐Andersen's ‘Worlds of Welfare’ typology, welfare state classification has become particularly prominent and a multitude of competing typologies and taxonomies have emerged. Each of these is based on different classification criteria, and each is trying to capture what a welfare state actually does. The result is that the literature is in a state of confusion and inertia as it is unclear which of these rival systems is currently the most accurate and should be taken forward, and which are not and should perhaps be left behind. This article extends Bonoli's two‐dimensional analysis of welfare state regimes by using multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis to compare and contrast the various classifications on universal criteria. It also examines the usefulness of the two‐dimensional approach itself and suggests how it can be enhanced to benefit future attempts at holistic welfare state modelling. The article concludes that there are some welfare state classifications that are more useful than others, especially in terms of reflecting a two‐dimensional analysis: it thereby ‘sifts the wheat from the chaff’ in terms of welfare state regime theory.     

Women Reconciling Paid and Unpaid Work in a Confucian Welfare State: The Case of South Korea

The participation of married women in the labour market has been increasing since industrialization in the 1960s in Korea; in 1999 it overtook that of unmarried women. This raises the issue of how women reconcile paid and unpaid work and how state policy responds to this issue. In Korea, there have been numerous policy reforms designed to support working women in combining work and family life. For example, a parental leave scheme was introduced in 1995 and maternity benefits were also introduced in 2001. However, it is doubtful whether these policies can be effective in practice in Korea, where Confucian traditions in respect of women's roles remain strong. Confucian tradition has long influenced Korean society culturally and socially. Although Korean society today is not as Confucian as in the past, some traditions still remain strong, particularly with regard to the family: for example filial piety, seniority, the married woman's responsibility for her parents‐in‐law. This paper will argue that Confucian tradition makes for difficulties in Korean women's experiences of reconciling paid and unpaid work and also affects the formation of state policy. The paper explores the impact of the Confucian welfare regimes on Korean women's experience of reconciling paid and unpaid care work, and questions the gendered characteristics of the Confucian welfare state.