The Support for Welfare State: Welfare Spending and Political Influence of Civil Society in South Korea

Welfare state itself and the support for the welfare state have been controversial issues for a long time. Traditionally, there are three ways of explaining the support for the modern welfare state. Modernization theory tries to explain the support for the welfare state by looking at the increase of income and population. On the other hand, power resource theory sees the power of labor unions and the power of leftist parties. Unlike the two, institutional theorists have argued the link between political institutions and redistribution of the wealth.

This paper tries to analyze the support for South Korean welfare state by looking at the political influence of civil society organizations. Explanations of the three traditional approaches to the support for the welfare state do not fit well with the South Korean welfare state case. This paper analyzes the link between political influence of civil society and welfare spending in South Korea by statistical methods using South Korean civil society survey data and Korea General Social Survey.