Democratic Consolidation and Welfare State Development : A Comparison of the Kim Young Sam Government and the Kim Dae Jung Government

민주주의의 공고화와 복지국가의 발전 : 문민정부와 국민의 정부 비교

This paper seeks to analyze how the welfare state has developed both in the Kim Young Sam government and in the Kim Dae Jung government. Among other things, the two governments share some similarities: compared to the previous authoritarian governments, both of them enjoyed a high level of democratic legitimacy; the two were under pressure to win the elections to acquire and remain in power; and finally, the two tried to strengthen welfare system. But there exist more critical differences. The Kim Dae Jung government was a minority government, while the Kim Young Sam government was a majority one. Compared to the latter one, the former came to power in an extremely bad economic condition. Fortunately, however, the Kim Dae Jung government was able to enjoy a relatively high level of state autonomy resulting from an exceptional situation of foreign currency crisis. In addition, it was more reformist in policy orientation and had a more open cooperative network with civil society. All these differences added up to produce remarkable differences with regard to the improvement in welfare development. Especially, it is noted that the Kim Dae Jung government was very successful in several respects: provision of national minimum, integration of national medical insurance, development of productive welfare system, and final1y increase in welfare spending. Recently, criticisms from the opposition party, the press, and middle and upper class people mount against the Kim Dae Jung government which has made significant mistakes in instituting the separation of medical and pharmaceutical businesses. However, the important improvements in welfare institutions and programs by the Kim Dae Jung government need to be maintained to deal with all the negative effects of a naked market economy. They must also be sustained to keep alive democracy that Korean people have fought for nearly half a century.