Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of Democratic Transition in Taiwan and South Korea. The main focus of the research is on Democracy and its relation with Taiwan and South Korea. The research also analyzes many aspects of Democracy and tries to gauge its effect in the both the countries. The research also describes various factors which are responsible for democratic transition and tries to describe the overall effect of democracy on Taiwan and South Korea.

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Thesis Statement5

Hypothesis5

From Developmental State to Welfare State5

Democracy and Welfare11

Growth with Equity15

Ideological Flexibility19

Conclusion21

Works Cited23

Introduction

The East Asian postwar developmental state has undergone a major transformation over the past two decades. Celebrated for their economic miracles and remarkable economic growth rates during the postwar period, places such as Taiwan, South Korea have also deepened their commitments to social welfare reform. Once synonymous with welfare state “laggard,” the aim of the high-growth developmental state has evolved from what was once a singular economic goal of aggregate growth through industrial upgrading towards a greater priority placed on inclusive and universal social policy (Kim, 1997, 1135-1144). To be sure, since the beginning of the 1990s, social spending has gone up in all three places. The scope of social policy programs has increased, with new reforms being implemented and coverage expanded. The political and economic pressures of globalization to retrench existing social protection schemes elsewhere have also been successfully resisted in these East Asian cases. Indeed, the idea of re-distributive social welfare policy and the normative imperatives of mitigating socio-economic inequality have become mainstream in Taiwan and South Korea, as opposed to politically marginal, radical reform agendas (Stepan, 2000, 37-57).

South Korea and Taiwan represent a very important case for scholars who examine democratic transition elsewhere in the world. For instance, in Taiwan before democracy, there was one party ruling and one ethnic group (Mainlanders) that dominates the country. This form of regime can be found elsewhere like Syria which is ruled by a military regime, one minority group the Alawites and one party system Ba'ath Party. However, the importance of studying Taiwan and to the extent South Korea is to examine how these two states have manage to co-opt opposition and ethnic groups and transform the regime gradually and peacefully into a democratic regime. There is also the claim that Asian values similarly to Islamic values are incompatible with democracy. Yet, the cases of South Korea and Taiwan refute this claim.

The fact that the welfare state took root in Taiwan and South Korea during the 1990s, precisely at the time when the political economy of globalization and the presumed “race to the bottom” would have predicted otherwise, is puzzling. That the governments in Taiwan and South Korea have developed both new and increasingly redistributive social policy measures in the absence of strong programmatic leftist parties or particularly cohesive labor movements runs counter to conventional theories of the welfare state (Han, 1997, 87). Having overcome the legacies of the high-growth developmental state, the institutions that underpinned the postwar ...