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.