韩国社会福利的发展过程和课题

Development of the social welfare in the Republic of Korea and the challenges

在经济发展、工业化、政治民主化的发展过程中,韩国的社会福利又是如何发展的呢?在过去的60年里,伴随着韩国经济发展和国家发展过程,社会福利也一同得到发展了吗?

How has the social welfare been developing in the Republic of Korea in the process of its economic growth, industrialization and political democratization? Has the social welfare been developed in the last 60 years as its economy grew and national development advanced? The author divides the process into three phases to sort out the evolution of the social welfare in the country and find the three once-prolonged phenomena of lags: social welfare lagged behind theeconomicgrowth;such hard and softwaresof social welfare as legislation, facilities, services lagged behind the economic growth; imbalance between the policies and systems of social welfare on the national level and those on the local level. Then he considers the challenges the Republic of Korea would face in the 21stcentury when it strives to build an advanced welfarestate and argues that now it is most important for the Republic of Korea to set direction scientifically for its nationalpolicies on social welfare.Welfare policies should not be adopted in view of gains and loss of citizens' votes. Instead, the directionshould be set truly for the citizens and for the security of their living. The distortion to the welfare policies by the struggles between progressive and conservative ideologies should beavoided.