Familial Foundations of the Welfare State

Building the National Health Insurance Systems in South Korea and Taiwan

verfasst von: Hye Suk Wang

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Enthalten in: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Einloggen, um Zugang zu erhalten

Über dieses Buch

This book situates culture as a determining factor in the development of diverse welfare states, exploring the impact of traditional familialism on South Korean and Taiwanese programs. This approach provides an important alternative to studies that focus on formal variables– such as industrialization, state intervention, and resource mobilization– that do not explain the key differences between the similar programs. Throughout this book, Wang looks into both the historical development and the present situation of medical welfare programs in South Korea and Taiwan, and she highlights the importance of families in these programs’ development. As East Asian societies continue to age while experiencing fewer births, the search for the most suitable, sustainable, and desirable welfare model in each country will become ever more pressing. Academics and practitioners alike will find this refreshing approach to analysis ideal for building welfare institutions that reflect societal values in addition to economic conditions.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. Introduction

Abstract

This chapter suggests the research question that will guide the whole book: how families shape the welfare state. To elaborate the question, the chapter explains the relationship between families and welfare state, especially in the East Asian cultural and historical contexts.

Hye Suk Wang

Chapter 2. Welfare Politics: Building Welfare Institutions

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the existing debates on the development and diversity of the welfare states and finds their limits in explaining the East Asian welfare states, as this requires a different theoretical frame. While existing studies use formal variables, such as industrialization, power resource mobilization, and state intervention, they dismiss the role of culture and norms. To make up for these shortcomings, this chapter intends to suggest a theoretical framework to analyze how cultural factors, especially family norms or familialism, can determine characteristics of welfare institutions and influence the development trajectories of the welfare states.

Hye Suk Wang

Chapter 3. (De-)Familialization in Social Policy in East Asia

Abstract

This chapter explores empirical details of the National Health Insurances in S. Korea and Taiwan, focused on their ‘de-familialization’ effects, which allows individuals to maximize their command of welfare resources, independent of familial or conjugal reciprocities. To this aim, this chapter collects and analyzes the annual statistics and compares the dependents ratio of the two programs, based on which it argues that Korea’s welfare regime is more familialized than Taiwan’s. This chapter explains the different familialistic welfare regimes of S. Korea and Taiwan, not from their family realities or labor market but from their welfare states' intervention through social policies with different familialization effects.

Hye Suk Wang

Chapter 4. Historical Development of NHI in S. Korea: Why not Equal Protection for Female Workers’ Families?

Abstract

This Chapter examines how Korean families actively participated in the welfare politics around the national health insurance in the form of recognition struggle since 1970s. It shows how families pursued their own interests in the institutional setting of the state’s welfare program that was incompatible with their family realities. In the process, this chapter applies Honneth’s insights and discusses how economic incentives and familial norms interact and reinforce each other in shaping and changing the welfare institutions. Based on the findings, this chapter argues that multi-layered meanings of ‘familialism’ are interwoven to constitute the specific features and development path of the welfare politics in S. Korea.

Hye Suk Wang

Chapter 5. Historical Development of NHI in Taiwan: De-familialization Path of Welfare Politics

Abstract

This chapter explains why Taiwan’s NHI reveals a relatively low level of the familialization effect, in terms of the politics of ethnicity. The explanation starts from the 1950s, when the divided welfare system between the Mainlanders and the Taiwanese was established. It examines how families reacted to the initial insurance system that did not cater to their family realities, and rationally chose to withdraw from the welfare politics. Families’ retreat in the initial stage established the de-familialized path of their welfare regime, which influenced the following the Labor Insurance and the NHI. As a result, family discourse disappeared from the welfare politics of Taiwan.

Hye Suk Wang

Chapter 6. Conclusion

Abstract

The conclusion chapter brings together the empirical and historical evidences of S. Korea and Taiwan to build the theoretical arguments. This chapter offers a set of theoretical propositions about how the three factors—historical legacies, institutional arrangements, and cultural diversity of each society—contribute to the formation of their unique welfare states. It will end by challenging the conventional argument that the globalization and neoliberal restructuring after the East Asian financial crisis will accelerate the convergence of the welfare states in the region. As the historical, institutional, and cultural characteristics have undeniably influenced the development process of the East Asian welfare states, their future cannot be alienated from such historical path.

Hye Suk Wang

Backmatter

Titel: Familial Foundations of the Welfare State
verfasst von: Hye Suk Wang
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-58712-7
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-58711-0
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58712-7