Social policy and mixed governance: Lessons from South Korea

Social Policy and Mixed Governance: Lessons from South Korea

Huck-ju Kwon (Seoul National University), Taekyoon Kim (Ewha University), Jooha Lee (Dongguk University), Ilcheong Yi (UNRISD)

South Korea’s developmental successes has been widely praised as one of the remarkable cases, emerging from the ashes of the Korean War and the following dictatorship to a democracy with growing economy. The transition is particularly significant because South Korea was able to reduce poverty and keep social inequality in check during the rapid economic development. It is a combination, which other emerging economies such as China or Brazil, recent Asian and Latin American success stories, have not been able to match so far.

How then did South Korea lift itself from utter destruction and destitution to affluence? How could a ruthlessly authoritarian regime metamorphose with relative ease into a stable democratic polity? What institutions and mechanisms enabled the authoritarian and democratic governments to reduce poverty and inequality? In tackling these questions, this paper deals with social policy through the lens of mixed governance. Based on the analysis, this paper calls for reinterpretation of South Korean developmental trajectories, in which social policy contributed to Korea’s successful development.