The Developmental Social Policy Standstill: Cash Payout Schemes Amid the Covid‐19 Pandemic in Four East Asian Economies

Based on the Asia Barometer Survey of 2003, 2004, and 2006, government performance, citizen empowerment, and citizen satisfaction with self‐expression values are associated with public trust in government in Japan and South Korea. This study finds, first, that government performance on the economy, controlling political corruption, the quality of public services, crime, and attention to citizen input are significantly associated with broad public trust in government in both Japan and South Korea. Likewise, citizens’ satisfaction with their right to gather and demonstrate and to criticize the government is closely connected to trust in central and local governments in Japan. In South Korea, citizens’ satisfaction with their right to gather and demonstrate is intimately linked to trust in local government. Implications for government leadership to enhance performance, transparency, citizen participation, and public trust in government are analyzed and elaborated upon in this insightful study.

Strategies, Struggles, and Sites of Transformation in Korean Political Economy

Much has been written about the decline of developmentalism in East Asia and the neoliberal makeover of states once renowned for ‘strategic industrial policy’. The adoption of more open trade and investment policies following the 1997 crisis, along with substantial financial sector reforms, has led some observers to conclude that the era of the developmental state is over and that of the ‘liberal-regulatory’ state has begun. 1 But while concepts such as ‘regulatory state’ and ‘post-developmental’ state are now the common currency of accounts seeking to conceptualise state transformation in post-crisis Asia, systematic empirical research that goes beyond surface policy shifts to appraise underlying institutional changes – both organisational and ideational – is thin. This paper takes a small step towards filling this gap, focusing on the evolution of foreign investment strategy in South Korea (hereafter Korea) and Taiwan since the financial crisis. 2 In particular, we seek to ascertain what recent reforms say about these states’ hitherto strategic approach to foreign investment issues. It is now widely appreciated that, over several decades, the governments of Korea and Taiwan engineered a set of institutional arrangements that enabled them effectively to guide foreign investment (both inward and outward) towards developmental ends. 3 Over the past decade, however, the emergence of a more complex set of domestic economic imperatives (reflecting the success of these countries’ industrial promotion efforts) and the proliferation of new international rules that proscribe certain domestic regulatory controls have made traditional forms of investment coordination more difficult and less viable. Moreover, upon their accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 and 2001 respectively, as well as in the immediate aftermath of the 1997 financial crisis, Korea and Taiwan declared major financial sector reforms, removing most foreign direct investment (FDI) conditionalities and relaxing capital controls on inbound and outbound flows. So what does this more liberal investment environment mean for these erstwhile developmental states? The fact that substantial policy shifts have occurred in Korea and Taiwan is beyond dispute. As we have argued elsewhere, however, policy changes alone tell us little about a state’s underlying orientation – whether it is motivated by liberal or developmental ambitions. 4 Indeed, if East Asia’s developmental states

Introduction Katja Bender, Markus Kaltenborn and Christian Pfleiderer Part 1: Social Protection Reforms: Objectives and Political Economy of Social Protection Reforms 1. Rescuing Social Protection from the Poverty Trap: New Programmes and Historical Lessons Sarah Cook 2. Social Protection for Poverty Reduction: Approaches, Effectiveness and Challenges Armando Barrientos 3. The Political Economy of Social Protection Reforms - What to Explain and How? Katja Bender 4. Social Cohesion: Does it matter for Growth and Development? Johannes Jutting and Annalisa Prizzon Part 2: The Legal Framework of Social Protection Reforms 5. The Human Rights-Based Approach to Social Protection Markus Kaltenborn 6. The Role of Law and Legal Institutions in the Reform of Social Protection Systems: Experiences from South Africa Ockert Dupper 7. The Role of the Law of Regional Organisations in Reforms of Social Protection Systems: Portability of Social Security Benefits in the East African Community Tulia Ackson 8. Reforms of Social Protection Systems in Latin America-The Legal Context Lorena Ossio Bustillos Part 3: Political Feasibility of Basic Social Protection 9. Attitudes towards Hard Work and Redistributive Preferences in Developing Countries Anil Duman 10. Populous, Precarious - Protected? The Paradox of Social Security for South Asian Agricultural Workers Karin Astrid Siegmann 11. Whom to Target - An Obvious Choice? Esther Schuring and Franziska Gassmann 12. How to target - Overview on current targeting methods in social protection Christian Pfleiderer Part 4: Social Protection Systems - Between Fragmentation and Integration 13. Building Social Protection and Labour Systems David A. Robalino, Laura Rawlings and Ian Walker 14. The Political Economy of Social Protection Reforms in Indonesia Bambang Widianto 15. Social Protection Reforms in Vietnam: Experiences and Challenges Nguyen Thi Lan Huong and Matthias Meissner 16. Social Protection: Political Reform and Policy Innovations in South Asia Gabriele Koehler 17. Caring for the Urban Middle Class: The Political Economy of Social Protection in Arab Countries Markus Loewe Part 5: Social Protection Reforms - International Contexts 18. Building National Social Protection Floors and Social Security Systems: The ILO's Two-Dimensional Social Security Strategy Christina Behrendt 19. Developing Countries' Social Protection Measures in Reaction to the Global Economic and Financial Crisis Yanchun Zhang and Nina Thelen 20. Social Protection and the Four Horsemen of the Donor Apocalypse Nicholas Freeland

Researchers in welfare services of local government in Korea have rather been on isolated issues as disables, childcare, aging phenomenon, etc. (Kang, 2004; Jung et al., 2009). Lately, local officials, yet, realize that they need more comprehensive welfare services for all residents, not just for above-mentioned focused groups. Still cases dealt with focused group approach have been a main research stream due to various reason(Jung et al., 2009; Lee, 2009; Jang, 2011). Social Security Information System is an information system that comprehensively manages 292 welfare benefits provided by 17 ministries and 40 thousand welfare services provided by 230 local authorities in Korea. The purpose of the system is to improve efficiency of social welfare delivery process. The study of local government expenditure has been on the rise over the last few decades after the restarting the local autonomy, but these studies have limitations on data collection. Measurement of a local government`s welfare efforts(spending) has been primarily on expenditures or budget for an individual, set aside for welfare. This practice of using monetary value for an individual as a "proxy value" for welfare effort(spending) is based on the assumption that expenditure is directly linked to welfare efforts(Lee et al., 2007). This expenditure/budget approach commonly uses total welfare amount or percentage figure as dependent variables (Wildavsky, 1985; Lee et al., 2007; Kang, 2000). However, current practice of using actual amount being used or percentage figure as a dependent variable may have some limitation; since budget or expenditure is greatly influenced by the total budget of a local government, relying on such monetary value may create inflate or deflate the true "welfare effort" (Jang, 2012). In addition, government budget usually contain a large amount of administrative cost, i.e., salary, for local officials, which is highly unrelated to the actual welfare expenditure (Jang, 2011). This paper used local government welfare service data from the detailed data sets linked to the Social Security Information System. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors that affect social welfare spending of 230 local authorities in 2012. The paper applied multiple regression based model to analyze the pooled financial data from the system. Based on the regression analysis, the following factors affecting self-funded welfare spending were identified. In our research model, we use the welfare budget/total budget(%) of a local government as a true measurement for a local government`s welfare effort(spending). Doing so, we exclude central government subsidies or support being used for local welfare service. It is because central government welfare support does not truly reflect the welfare efforts(spending) of a local. The dependent variable of this paper is the volume of the welfare spending and the independent variables of the model are comprised of three categories, in terms of socio-demographic perspectives, the local economy and the financial capacity of local government. This paper categorized local authorities into 3 groups, districts, and cities and suburb areas. The model used a dummy variable as the control variable (local political factor). This paper demonstrated that the volume of the welfare spending for the welfare services is commonly influenced by the ratio of welfare budget to total local budget, the population of infants, self-reliance ratio and the level of unemployment factor. Interestingly, the influential factors are different by the size of local government. Analysis of determinants of local government self-welfare spending, we found a significant effect of local Gov. Finance characteristic in degree of the local government`s financial independence, financial independence rate, rate of social welfare budget, and regional economic in opening-to-application ratio, and sociology of population in rate of infants. The result means that local authorities should have differentiated welfare strategies according to their conditions and circumstances. There is a meaning that this paper has successfully proven the significant factors influencing welfare spending of local government in Korea.

BackgroundIt is widely acknowledged that austerity measures in the wake of the global financial crisis are starting to undermine population health results. Yet, few research studies have focused on the ways in which the financial crisis and the ensuing ‘Great Recession’ have affected health equity, especially through their impact on social determinants of health; neither has much attention been given to the health consequences of the fiscal austerity regime that quickly followed a brief period of counter-cyclical government spending for bank bailouts and economic stimulus. Canada has not remained insulated from these developments, despite its relative success in maneuvering the global financial crisis.MethodsThe study draws on three sources of evidence: A series of semi-structured interviews in Ottawa and Toronto, with key informants selected on the basis of their expertise (n = 12); an analysis of recent (2012) Canadian and Ontario budgetary impacts on social determinants of health; and documentation of trend data on key social health determinants pre- and post the financial crisis.ResultsThe findings suggest that health equity is primarily impacted through two main pathways related to the global financial crisis: austerity budgets and associated program cutbacks in areas crucial to addressing the inequitable distribution of social determinants of health, including social assistance, housing, and education; and the qualitative transformation of labor markets, with precarious forms of employment expanding rapidly in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Preliminary evidence suggests that these tendencies will lead to a further deepening of existing health inequities, unless counter-acted through a change in policy direction.ConclusionsThis article documents some of the effects of financial crisis and severe economic decline on health equity in Canada. However, more research is necessary to study policy choices that could mitigate this effect. Since the policy response to a similar set of economic shocks has globally varied and led to differential health and health equity outcomes, comparative studies are now possible to assess the successes and failures of specific policy responses. This raises the question of what types of public policy can mitigate against the negative health equity effects of severe economic recessions.

Studies taking a mediation perspective have highlighted how the actual impact of economic globalisation is mediated by institutions that include welfare regimes. Some have examined how the welfare systems ofEastAsian developmental states have changed and adapted since theAsian financial crisis of 1997/1998. UsingHongKong as a case study, this article examines how the developmental state ofHongKong mediated the impact of the global financial crisis of 2008, particularly on disadvantaged groups.HongKong's welfare regime has provided insufficient support to ‘non‐productive’ groups despite incidents of social crisis. The government's welfare responses have been characterised by long‐term strategies to improve the competitiveness of the economy, and short‐term measures to boost the spending power of the general public. Measures targeted at disadvantaged groups have been piecemeal and minimal. The government's approach towards crisis management after 2008 has been similar to that taken after the 1997/1998 financial crisis.

The global financial crisis has had a devastating effect on poverty levels in developing countries, and the social protection response to date, in the form of social assistance, has been limited, constrained by the weak systems and low coverage of pre‐existing provision. Developing countries have struggled to honour pre‐crisis social protection policy commitments due to declining revenues, and in this context the potential for expanding coverage to assist those further impoverished and the “new poor” are remote. Despite the expansionary fiscal stance adopted by many developing countries, the focus of policy responses to the crisis has been on protecting and stimulating growth. The focus has not been on social protection provision to assist the poor directly. Where social protection interventions have been made they have, in many cases, been limited to ad hoc and often regressive interventions such as generalized food or fuel subsidies, rather than more systemic and pro‐poor interventions. However, there may be some scope for optimism, as the crisis has stimulated a number of initiatives to promote donor coordination and programming coherence, which may result in improvements in the efficiency and impact of future social protection programming.

When working overseas, domestic workers are susceptible to a variety of risks that can compromise their level of living. These risks encompass a variety of types, including health and work accidents. Social protection is a form of action or policy that is present to counteract this. Nonetheless, the activities of domestic workers who work abroad cause the social protection that is applied to them is not only from one side, namely the country of origin or the country of destination, but also both. The purpose of this paper is to examine various types of social protection for Indonesian domestic workers in Taiwan. This paper analyzes the experiences and knowledge of five informants who have or are now employed as domestic workers in Taiwan by interviewing them about their access to or utilization of the various social protection programs available to them. The discussion of their experiences is separated into two types of social protection: formal, provided by the governments of Indonesia as well as the government of Taiwan, and informal. The findings of this paper indicate that, on the one hand, the informants do not share the same awareness of the existence of social protection provided by the Indonesian government and, on the other hand, they are aware of and have utilized the health insurance provided by the Taiwanese government, although they do not share the same understanding of other insurances, such as the work accident insurance provided under the employment contract. Moreover, donations and training provided by non-government agencies are identifiable informal social protection in this study. This paper also argues that the awareness of Indonesian domestic workers about the importance of social protection can be improved by providing socialization regarding awareness of their future potential risks.

Building resilient societies after COVID-19: the case for investing in maternal, neonatal, and child health

This chapter focuses on the issue of economic insecurity. In spite of the social and economic progress of society in recent decades, people in both developed and developing countries have less economic security today than they did earlier. The world is currently immersed in a global financial crisis. The risks and uncertainties are unprecedented, and no one is sure how this crisis will evolve. In the face of uncertainty, demands for protection are inevitable. So concerned were the G-20 leaders about such demands that one of the few commitments undertaken at their first meeting in Washington in November of 2008 was a commitment to not resort to protectionism in response to the crisis. The chapter argues that a need for enhanced social protection exists and that this social protection will not only decrease the demand for protectionism but also enhance the efficiency of the economy. It describes some innovative forms that this social protection might take. It begins by explaining the theory of market failures on which the principle of social protection lies, and how globalization may have made the problem of providing social protection more difficult.

Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is among the largest social protection programmes in Africa and has been promoted as a model for the continent. This paper analyses the political drivers of the programme, arguing that elite commitment can be understood in the context of shifts within Ethiopia’s political settlement and the government’s evolving development strategy. Foreign donors provided policy ideas and pushed for reform, but it was not until incentives flowing from the political settlement were favourable that elite commitment was secured. Even then, longstanding ideological commitments shaped the productive focus of the programme, ensuring consistency with the development strategy.

Social protection policy is one of the Government's efforts to ease the burden on communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This policy includes providing social assistance, subsidies, and economic stimulus. Analysis of the impact of social protection policies in Indonesia post-COVID-19 is essential to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of these policies. This analysis can also be used to provide better policy recommendations in the future. The research method uses descriptive qualitative with a post-positivism approach, which is a paradigm that emphasizes objectivity and rationality in research in analysing the impact of social protection policies in post-COVID-19 Indonesia. The research results show that these social protection programs' effects include increasing people's income, improving nutrition, increasing access to health services, and improving quality of life. Apart from that, these programs have also helped poor and vulnerable communities to become more independent and empowered. However, there are still several challenges in implementing social protection programs in Indonesia. These challenges include limited budgets, lack of coordination between programs, and low levels of community participation. To overcome these challenges, the Government needs to make various efforts, including increasing the budget for social protection programs, strengthening coordination between programs, and increasing community participation

The magnitude of global food loss and waste requires a major overhaul of economies and food supply chains to reduce food insecurity, environmental burdens, and economic losses. Reducing food loss and waste and improving access and distribution to feed hungry people are the highest priorities. The next highest value is converting energy and nutrients in food waste (FW) materials into animal feeds to produce more food while recovering resources and reducing environmental costs. Governments in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have developed laws, regulations, economic incentives, subsidies, and infrastructure to require collection and recycling of all sources of FW and promote the conversion of a high proportion (>65 %) to safe animal feed. Many countries have extensive laws and regulations designed to prevent transmission of animal diseases that could occur from feeding FW, but those in the U.S. and E.U. are too restrictive based on current heat processing technology and monitoring systems available, resulting in only 5–10 % of available FW used in animal feeds. In China, despite difficulties controlling African swine fever virus, new government initiatives show promise for developing guidelines, infrastructure, and processes for diverting more of the 350 million tonnes of annual FW toward safe animal feed.

This paper investigates how COVID-19 anxiety and public evaluations of government crisis management relate to executive approval rates and trust in government in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. Contrary to expectations from previous studies, we find no significant relationship between COVID-19 anxiety and changes in trust or executive approval. However, there is a consistent positive association between citizens’ evaluations of their government’s crisis management and increased levels of public support across all three countries. This study broadens the geographical scope of COVID-19-related research by exploring public attitudes in East Asia, contributing to the understanding of how government responses to crises relate to public trust and evaluations of political leaders.