POL S 354 Welfare States in Comparison

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POL S 354 Welfare States in Comparison

• Lecture 9
• Asian Welfare States

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Outline

• Introduction
• A fourth world of welfare capitalism?
• The Economic Crisis
• Summary

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1. Introduction

• There is debate within the literature on
  comparative social policy about how easily we can
  integrate Asian social policy into western
  typologies
• Cultural explanations of Asian welfare are
  popular and problematic
• There is no single model of Asian social policy
• The Asian economic crisis has generated debate
  about the appropriateness of free market
  strategies in East Asia, and the need for more
  institutionalized social protection

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2. A fourth world of welfare capitalism?

• Different approaches to explaining East Asian
  social policy
• Cultural or Oriental explanations
• Confucianism Confucian welfare (Jones)
• The family and filial piety
• Family as primary provider of social protection
• Familial welfare states (Esping-Anderson)

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Problems with cultural arguments

• How can we account for difference within Asian
  welfare states?
• Malaysia and Indonesia Muslim
• Korea, Taiwan, Singapore Confucian
• Thailand Buddhist
• Philippines, East Timor Catholic

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Nine common features of East Asian Welfare
(Wilding)

• Low social welfare expenditure
• Focus on growth
• Hostility to welfare
• Residualism
• Central role of the family
• Regulatory role of the state
• Piecemeal development
• Use of welfare to build support for the state
• Lack of social rights

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Hollidays Productivist Welfare Capitalism

• East Asian model as a fourth world in
  Esping-Andersens model
• Premised on growth
• States role is to facilitate economic
  development
• Social policy for productive elements of the
  population

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A typology of East Asian states (Holliday)

• Facilitative (Hong Kong) similar to liberal with
  more emphasis on government encouragement of
  growth, strong public housing expenditures
• Developmental-universalist (Japan, South Korea,
  Taiwan) universal social policy for workers
• Developmental-particularistic (Singapore) no
  direct state provision state directs private
  provision for productive segments

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• Bureaucratic politics and power North East Asia
• Territorial rivalry
• Proximity to hostile regimes
• Ascendance of communism
• International markets/business
• Democratisation

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Problems with productivist welfare capitalism

• Gendered aspects extended family dependency
  accentuates womens caring responsibilities
• Poverty and retirement limited pensions
• Work in old age
• Family dependency and autonomy
• Breakdown of familial system

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(No Transcript)
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3. The Economic Crisis

• Prior to late 1990s long boom, reducing
  poverty, increasing inequality
• Industrialization
• Foreign investment
• Asset price bubble
• Exchange rate appreciation fueled import
  consumption
• 1997 collapse of the Thai Baht
• 1998 East Asian Recession

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Recovery and the Bretton Woods Institutions

• The World Bank and The East Asian Miracle
  liberalization brought growth with increasing
  equality
• IMF loans tied to extensive liberalization
  measures
• Countries prohibited from developing
  western-style social protection systems
• Influence of US in IMF

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• Notion that East Asian economic success is due to
  free market policies
• Most of the High Performing Asian Economies
  (HPAEs) used strategic interventions to support
  economic policy
• Recovery after the crisis has involved Keynesian
  expansion
• Several countries are moving towards more
  generous welfare systems

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(No Transcript)
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4. Summary

• It is important to avoid a homogenous description
  and explanation of Asian social policy
• Hollidays productivist welfare capitalism
  captures only basic similarities
• Asian (welfare) states have undergone rapid
  change
• International economic factors and institutions
  have fundamentally shaped Asian social policy

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Next weeks readings

• Hay (1998)
• Yeates (1999)

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Questions for discussion

• Outline the features of productivist welfare
  capitalism.
• Can Asian welfare can be explained by Confucian
  culture?
• Asian welfare states are essentially an
  underdeveloped version of conservative social
  policy Critically comment.
• What has been the impact of the economic crisis
  on East Asian welfare?

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Jomo 2001

• Discussion topics
• The success of Asian economies is attributable to
  laissez faire economic policies.
• Economic growth in North and South Asia has
  rapidly reduced poverty.
• Race and ethnicity figure in redistributive
  policies of Asian governments.