• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.46
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• pp.178-209
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• 2001

This paper aims to provide a critical assesment of Conservatives's and new Labour's social assistance reforms in the U.K. and their differential impacts on low income groups. During the period of 18 years in power, the Conservative governments enforced benefit recipients being capable of work to be out of benefits and to get into work. They employed not only 'carrots' to encourage beneficiaries being capable of work to have full-time work, but also 'sticks' to discourage them to depend on benefits. The reforms under the Conservative governments were closer to the workfare model. The new Labour government has continued to emphasize work regarding social security reform. It has raised 'from welfare to work' as the main reform objective. However, it has not necessarily focused on 'carrots and sticks' in order to get beneficiaries into work. Instead, the new Labour government has put its priority regarding social assistance reform on human capital development in order to develop the capability of beneficiaries for work. Britain under the new Labour government seems to be moving from workfare to activation model. These differentials between the Conservative governments and the new Labour government regarding social assistance reforms bring about the different policy outcomes. Under the Conservative government, social assistance programmes were prone to strengthen the state's control over benefit recipients and to increase stigma to them. Punitive, demeaning, stigmatising programmes of work and unending job search activities harm the bases of self-respect. On the contrary, the activation programmes under the new Labour government has contributed positively to both socially significant participation and autonomy of beneficiaries.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.44
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• pp.232-261
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• 2001

Because of their international importance, 'the Welfare Reforms' of the Thatcher government as well as Thatcherism were studied so much, and analysed so deeply. However, the existing studies mainly focused the institutional changes of the welfare state themselves and cynically criticized the decline of it. And, there is no study explained the Thatcher's reform as the changed balance of the British class strength. This means that the nature of the Thatcher's welfare reform is not scientifically clarified yet. So, I tried to examine this one again. For the purpose, I reviewed the nature of Thatcherism, described the changed welfare state, and analysed the result of the polling, the power dynamics of the Labour Party, the changed attitude of the Labour Party and the working class to the welfare state and Keynesianism, and the political attack of the Thatcher government on the working class and their response to it.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• no.39
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• pp.167-187
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• 2008

This study explores the trends of social security expenditures after financial crisis in welfare states. For the purpose, this study analyzes changes in social expenditures during 1980~2003 in 22 OECD countries. The results show that average total social security expenditure(as a percentage of GDP) among the 22 countries increased from 18.0% in 1980 to 22.3% in 2003. Compared to sharp increases during the great expansion period of the welfare state before 1980s, the increase in social expenditures after 1980s is substantially weakened. The slowdown in the increases of social expenditures is remarkable in the social democratic welfare states where social expenditures have already reached a high level. On the other hand, social expenditures are considerably increased in the lagged welfare states such as South European countries and Japan. As a result, the cross-national difference in social expenditures has continuously decreased. These findings suggest that financial crisis is a key factor of welfare-state reorganization. Countries where social expenditures are in high level need more reforms under the pressure of financial deficits. Since 1980s, they have tried various reforms especially in pensions and unemployment benefits. Facing new and increasing demands for social security as well as financial limitations, the welfare state needs major reforms in the social security system to increase effectiveness/efficiency of existing programs and to iron out priorities among programs.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.46
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• pp.37-59
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• 2001

This paper investigates the long-term social changes and the emerging issues in social insurance that such changes will entail, It does not attempt to resolve the conflict between neo-liberal reforms and neo-corporalist reforms. Nor does it confine itself to proposing the options to secure the financial stability of social insurance schemes. The aim of this paper lies in anticipating various problems that result from social development, analyzing the impacts of these problems on social insurance schemes, and delineating the solutions to these problems. This paper is comprised of three parts. First, it describes the expected long-term changes in society and the ensuing problems. Second, it asks whether these problems can be solved with increased public expenditures. For this purpose, an analysis of the trend in the expenditures by welfare states is attempted. Third, it summarizes the issues in social insurance and presents the possible solutions to the problems. In the chapter that deals with social changes and social problems, various aspects are reviewed, including the globalization process, the development of It industries, the uncertainty in the classification of incomes, the widening gap in earnings due to the bio-economy, and the relation between social insurance schemes and the tax system. It is concluded that there are limits to the role that increased public expenditures can play to solve the social problems. This paper argues for a structural change in the social insurance system. In every social insurance scheme, the state should foe-us its effect on the provision of basic protection against social risks for the whole population. At the same time, the state should improve the financial stability of the scheme and avoid large-scale deficits.

• 한국사회복지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.227-263
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• 2002

The Scandinavian cluster of welfare societies has for many years been considered a realisation of Richard Titmuss' institutional redistributive model of social policy. Recent reforms have, however challenged this assumption. The paper sets out to evaluate whether recent major changes in welfare provision are merely modifying the model or whether the Scandianian states are converging towards some kind of European social model. It is concluded that besides very many first order changes, such as reducing benefits, an number of second and third order changes have occurred; i.e. the institutional setting and the objective of the welfare states have changed during the 1990s. The Scandinavian welfare states are still distinct, but less so than a decade or two ago. The new elements are features usually associated with welfare models at play within the European Union. It is, hence, concluded that welfare in Scandinavia is undergoing a process of Europeanisation.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.49
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• pp.95-128
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• 2002

The present study is designed to trace the successful reform steps taken within the vocational training system in the UK and to extract a set of instructive implications for Korea's future reform path towards an efficient vocational training system conducive to youth employment. To this end, this study focuses on three major aspects of the youth vocational training system: the government's role and partnerships between training and industry, the vocational training system, and the employment support system. Implications drawn from the comparative analysis are as follows. Vocational training reform should be made within the broad paradigm of youth employment promotion. All aspects of the youth vocational training system, such as the training program structure, program content, provider, management, so on, should be reformed, step by step, within a long-term plan. In addition to the vocational training reforms. employment support programs should be enlarged, and the service delivery system should be well structured in order to enhance the effects of the training reforms. For these reforms, it is essential to make fundamental changes in the following areas: integration of youth employment policy making and its administrative structures, reinforcement of partnerships between training and industry, nation-wide standardization of job skins, and the introduction of standardized job certificate classification on a national level.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.197-221
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• 2013

The 2008 world economic crisis had unprecedented consequences in European societies, with repercussions on Southern European countries in particular. In Italy, the crisis itself provided a plausible rationale for policy makers to push forward long needed welfare cuts, resulting in the neoliberal austerity trend fostered by the Monti government (years 2011-2012). In the light of the fact that Bismarckian welfare states from continental Europe are generally difficult to reform, understanding these policy dynamics requires an adequate theoretical framework. This paper seeks to understand the logics behind welfare reforms in Italy after the 2008 economic crisis, by reviewing available theoretical approaches in literature. It is argued that external forces (notably, the European Union) represented the main trigger factor, and that political elites marginalized the role played by civil society, with social problems such as unemployment worsening as a result.

• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-47
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• 2022

This paper introduces a politico-economic model with a welfare state and immigration. In this model, policies on taxes and immigration are determined through a plurality voting system. While many studies of fiscal implications of immigration argue that relaxing immigration policies can substitute for tax reforms in an aging economy, I show that the democratic voting procedure can dampen the effect of relaxing immigration policies as desired policy reforms are not always implemented by the winner of an election. This political economy results in three types of social welfare losses. First, the skill composition is not balanced at a socially efficient level because workers are motivated to maximize their wages. Second, older retirees implement excessive taxes to maximize the size of the welfare state. Third, the volume of immigration is lower than the optimal level given the incentive by young workers to regain political power in the future.

• 한국사회정책
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.3-43
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• 2018

The digital revolution has brought about both positive expectations and negative concerns. Many experts predict that the current technological revolution, so-called "Fourth Industrial Revolution", which is expected to increase productivity in a disruptive way, has significant implications on employment and the labor market. In subsequence, the possible demise of the traditional employment system could markedly undermine the comtemporary welfare state. As a result, basic income has emerged as an alternative. However, little welfare state research has conducted the systematic review on the impact of the present technological revolution on employment and welfare states. In this paper, we will start to review the gist of the digital revolution and critically review recent studies on its effects on employment and welfare states together with actual case studies. In particular, we will investigate the experiences of platform economies of Uber and Amazon Mechanical Turk, and the German experience from 'Work 4.0'. Finally, we will discuss key issues of future welfare state reforms. This research argues that the effects of the technological revolution on employment and welfare state policies would be enormous, but they will be most likely to be mediated by domestic political and policy institutions. It emphasizes the importance of high-quality social investment that would enable individuals to flexibly adapt technological changes and support creative human capital resource. But, high-quality social investment could not be sustained without the decent social protection system that universally provides security to people.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.642-657
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• 2017

The Protestant Reformation that erupted 500 years ago has influenced all aspects of society and have become a crucial stepping stone to modern times from the Middle Ages. The purpose of this study was to show the reformational characteristics of the social welfare revealed in the process of the Reformation in the 16th century and how they apply to the Modern Christianity, especially from the view of the missional church. Therefore, in the main body, the two doctrines of Justification by Faith only and the Priesthood of All Believers were based on the Luther's Reformation were examined. A researcher confirmed that his Reformational characteristics concerned about second-class citizens and disadvantaged such as the weak faith, women, and the social situations were considered all the time in his Reformation. There were three characteristics of Luther's social welfare reforms: relief activities, education businesses, and economic policies. In addition, a researcher discussed some suggestions that the missional church can apply to its ministry for creating a healthier community.