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A Comparative Study of Welfare State Changes and Strategies

Kyo-seong Kim 1 김성욱 2

1중앙대학교
2한국보건복지정보개발원

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The principal objective of this study was to explore the changes and strategies of welfare states based on the welfare-labor nexus, and to assess the possibility of categorizing the East Asian welfare regime. This study reflected multi-dimensional aspects of welfare states and assessed the extent of the relevant changes using ideal-type analysis based on a fuzzy-set approach to overcome or circumvent existing methodological–theoretical limitations. As a result of this analysis, most countries were shown to have their own systematic combination of welfare-labor nexus and changing strategies, whereas Sweden and US have maintained traditional characteristics of welfare programs. In particular, East Asian countries exhibit divergent patterns of change and strategies that cannot be converged into a single category. Whereas Korea has changed into a liberal welfare state using a strategy designed to lower the level of employment protection legislation, Japan has mainly utilized a wage inequality design, which employs some hybrid and unique features.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.