East Asian welfare regime: obsolete ideal-type or diversified reality

Peter Abrahamson

Journal of Asian Public Policy · 2016 · 52 citations · 39 references

Concepts

TL;DR

The literature on East Asian welfare regimes is divided, with some scholars arguing that the region has moved toward European‑style welfare states while others maintain that productivist legacies and Confucian values continue to shape policy. The study investigates whether East Asian welfare regimes remain productivist and Confucian and whether they have developed public care policies. Public care policies have been implemented across East Asia, but the rollout remains large yet insufficient.

Abstract

The paper asks if East Asian welfare regimes are still productivist and Confucian? And, have they developed public care policies? The literature is split on the first question but (mostly) confirmative on the second. Care has to a large, but insufficient extent, been rolled out in the region. Political science studies tend to conclude that the region has left the old legacies behind and are now welfare states comparable to European states including them either in the conservative type (e.g. Japan), the liberal type (e.g. Korea) or even as a tendency in the Nordic type (e.g. China), while studies focusing on outcomes or causal links tend to suggest that legacies prevail, but there is (nearly) consensus that Confucianism exercises great influence in the whole region.

References

39