The impact of government partisanship on social policy in a young democracy: The case of South Korea

Abstract

This article investigates the impact of government partisanship on social policy developments in South Korea. Social policy developments of the center-left Kim Dae-Jung government and the conservative Lee Myung-Bak government are compared using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. The comparison demonstrates that each government is distinctive in its welfare expenditures as well as welfare ideology and reforms. The welfare reforms instituted by the Kim government strengthened the social security-centered welfare state. In contrast, the Lee government commoditized labor and strengthened the free market logic in the welfare delivery system. Despite the impacts of partisanship, both governments dealing with economic crises and interacting with social movements were required to expand social policy. Consequently, the policy differences between the governments turned out to be less pronounced than expected. This article suggests that the party difference theory, which considers socioeconomic and political constraints, could explain crucial parts of social policy outputs in South Korea.