SOCIAL-SECURITY IN SOUTH-KOREA AND SINGAPORE - EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENCES

Authors
Citation
M. Ramesh, SOCIAL-SECURITY IN SOUTH-KOREA AND SINGAPORE - EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENCES, Social policy & administration, 29(3), 1995, pp. 228-240
Citations number
45
Categorie Soggetti
Social Issues","Planning & Development
ISSN journal
01445596
Volume
29
Issue
3
Year of publication
1995
Pages
228 - 240
Database
ISI
SICI code
0144-5596(1995)29:3<228:SISAS->2.0.ZU;2-1
Abstract
The paper sets out statutory social security arrangements in Korea and Singapore and then explains the differences between them. It finds th at while Korea has a relatively advanced social security system based primarily on serial insurance, Singapore has a patchwork of programmes bared enforced saving, tax allowance, public assistance, and public i nsurance schemes run along commercial lines. Moreover, tile increasing share of government expenditure devoted to social security in Korea s tands in sharp, contrast to the declining share in Singapore. The pape r accounts for the variations in terms of the different economic objec tives of the two states and the different international and societal c onstraints they face. In contrast to South Korea which has rapidly es tablished an elaborate set of income maintenance and health care progr ammes, Singapore continues to resist expansion of such programmes. The objective of this paper is to describe the social security programmes in the two countries and then explain why the supposedly similar poli tical economies have pursued entirely different social security strate gies. The paper will argue that to understand the variations, we need to examine the varying economic objectives of the two states and the d ifferent international and societal constraints they face.