This study reviewed the pattern of reform in social assistance programs by country, as shown in the course of restructuring of welfare states from the 1990s to the present, and the reason for the pattern of reforms. With this purpose, the study attemp...
This study reviewed the pattern of reform in social assistance programs by country, as shown in the course of restructuring of welfare states from the 1990s to the present, and the reason for the pattern of reforms. With this purpose, the study attempted an analysis of social assistance programs focusing on income security and workfare in the major 16 OECD countries. In terms of income security, the study measured the generosity of social assistance through the level of benefit and coverage; and in terms of work incentive and work constraint, the study measured the harshness of social assistance through the limitations of the benefit duration, the existence of work test, sanction, requirements, and the replacement rate. Although there have been diverse researches in relation to the typology of social assistance programs until now, there have been no research combining the two axes of income security and workfare, which renders this study meaningful. The results analyzed in the study are summarized as follows.
As a result of attempting the typology through a k-means cluster analysis, the social assistance programs are classified into four categories. The first one is the “integral” type that features a higher generosity of income security and a stronger harshness of work incentive and work constraint. This type is supposed to connect welfare and work closely, and it is applied to Norway, Denmark, Finland, and the UK. Second, the “welfare-emphasis” type features a higher generosity of income security, but a weaker harshness of work incentive and work constraint, and is applied only to Canada. The third category is the “liberal” type that features both a lower generosity of income security and a weaker harshness of work incentive and work constraint, and it is applied to Ireland, Japan, Portugal, and New Zealand. Finally, the “work-emphasis” type features a lower generosity of income security and a stronger harshness of work incentive and work constraint, and it is applied to Austria, France, Germany, Iceland, Sweden, the USA, and Korea.
Then, the study attempted to find out the reason why there appear mutually different types by country through understanding the combined relationships of causal variables that determine each typology based on the typology deduced above. This study conducted a Qualitative Comparative Analysis(QCA), and examined independent variables ranging from the total social assistance expenditures as a percentage of GDP, government deficit, poverty rate, share of seats of right-wing political parties, GDP per capita, and long-term unemployment rate, and the typology results were applied as dependent variables. The analysis results revealed through the QCA include the following.
When analyzing the “integral” and “work-emphasis” type, it could be confirmed that the existing research that insisted that workfare had been introduced under the increased influence of right wing political parties was valid in some aspects. However, the share of seats of right wing political parties was not a only determinant for it. This means that there is a shift in the direction of social assistance programs of left wing political parties. In five countries except Iceland and the USA, where the Clinton administration changed to the Bush administration during the research period, out of the seven countries to which the “work-emphasis” type is applied, the connection between work and welfare was reinforced despite of a highly influential left wing political party.
Also, the reinforcement of the connection between work and welfare is shown in two types of combination form, one is a type where the long-term unemployment rate is low and the government’s intervention in welfare and the government deficit are high, and the other is a type where the long-term unemployment rate and the government’s intervention in welfare are low whereas the share of seats of left wing political parties and the poverty rate are high. As a result, it was found that the higher government deficit and the poverty rate may reinforce workfare when combined with other factors, but it is not a prerequisite; and the government introduces workfare as a way of solving a government deficit and poverty problems.