Globalization, Democracy, and the Evolution of Social Contracts in East Asia

Abstract

A large literature on the East Asian welfare state has noted that government commitments to social insurance have historically been limited. However, this literature is backward-looking. Democratization has been accompanied by an expansion of social policy commitments in a number of countries in the region; this expansion even survived the Asian financial crisis. But closer inspection suggests that this experience depends on economic as well as political circumstances. High growth and structurally sound public finances underpinned social policy expansion in Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan, while erratic growth and structural fiscal problems limited the capacity of democratic governments in the Philippines to respond to long-standing social problems.