Measuring Social Policy Change in Comparative Research: Survey Data Evidence from South Korea

Abstract

ABSTRACTSocial policy change has been discussed extensively in comparative welfare state research, beyond a mere social expenditure approach. Unfortunately, conceptually and methodologically informed debates have only marginally influenced countries other than in the Western world, leaving research on East Asian welfare states almost unaffected by the dependent variable problem. This study aims to fill this gap by summarizing some key features from the social policy change literature, and by analyzing it for the South Korean welfare state through nationally representative survey-based data (2006–2013). The findings suggest that after adjusting for needs, and disaggregating policy fields, social policies in Korea are not changing linearly; rather, it looks as if “old” social policies are fairly stable, whereas “new” ones have grown during the time under observation, following a path of institutional layering.