Introduction: Melting labour and institutional inconsistency

Abstract

The combination of the Korean welfare state and its labour market is puzzling. In this book, I embark on a journey to unravel the complex relationship between the evolving landscape of melting labour and the inadequacies of institutional protections in the Korean welfare state. South Korea (hereafter, Korea) is often recognised as the most typical case of the East Asian miracle, characterised by broadly fair income distribution without prominent welfare politics representing income, wealth redistribution or labour. The puzzle lies in understanding why, despite achieving economic affluence and rapid institutional development in welfare institutions, Korea has witnessed a distinctively high rate of new forms of precarious work since the 2000s. Why and how does the compressed institutional development of the welfare state fail to protect precarious workers in Korea? In this book, I argue that the mismatch between the institutional combination established during the compressed welfare state development and the melting labour, which has increased precarious work, is at the core of this issue. I will explain how this mismatch renders the old institutions obsolete, employing the concept of policy ‘drift’.