What kind of tripartite relations have Korea and Taiwan built since democratization? As for the tripartite relations in both countries before democratization, they are often referred to with the concept of "state corporatism". But nowadays, after 20 years of democracy, and 10 years since the Asian economic crisis, is corporatism still effective as a framework to analyze tripartite relations and the process of policy-making? In this paper I will show that it is effective, and I would also like to observe the different ways in which corporatism has appeared in both countries in recent years. In this paper, I will first explore the classical argument of Schmitter and its recent revival as the "competitive corporatism" (Section 1). Then, once the preconditions of the new corporatism in Korea and Taiwan have been presented (Section 2), I will analyze two corporatist agreements in each countries (Taiwan = Section 3, Korea = Section 4). Taking into account the abovementioned points, I will examine by comparison the nature and effects of the new corporatism in both countries (Section 5). The new corporatism in Korea and Taiwan shows a contrast that can be summarized as "big deal" (Korea) and "small deal" (Taiwan). However, even in the case of Korean tripartite negotiation, which succeeded in the "big deal", it is uncertain whether it is functioning really "competitively". Needless to say, it depends on one's point of view that how one evaluates this situation.

Full paper download: Kamimura Y_new corporatism.pdf

During the last 20 years, we have witnessed the emergence of social enterprises in Western societies as a response to the problems of welfare states and markets. Facing low fertility and aging of the population with decreasing abilities of welfare states, social enterprises were developed to provide services and work opportunities for the socially and economically disadvantaged. Recently, the Korean government has developed social enterprises as its key social program for unemployment and welfare services. The economic crisis in late 1980s has created unprecedented massive unemployment. After the government enacted the social enterprise promotion act in 2007, it has approved 109 social enterprises and announced a plan to increase the number of social enterprises annually to 1000 by year 2010. The Ministry of Labor spent 7.3 billion Won in 2003. In 2007, the budget increased to 1.3 trillion Won. Despite increasing number of social enterprise in Korea, neither a clear conceptualization nor explicit strategies for social enterprises have been proposed. A majority of academic studies on social enterprises are still in a preliminary stage by offering case studies or working on a definition and typology of social enterprises on a conceptual level (Kim and Ban, 2006; Um, 2005; Kim, 2007; Kim, 2006; the Korea Foundation for Working Together, 2006; Jung, 2005, 2006; Im, 2007). In the present study, I will examine how the nature of pre-existing welfare programs has shaped the nature of the Korean social enterprises through the institutionalization of interest groups and the competing agenda of different state organizations (e.g., the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry for Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs). I will also examine the characteristics of the Korean social enterprises, based on the 109 officially approved social enterprises, which reflects the institutional conditions previous welfare programs and state agenda. The emergence of the Korean social enterprises will demonstrate how institutional innovation in welfare policies is strongly shaped by the nature of a pre-existing welfare state regime. Finally, I will discuss the key conditions for the dilemma that the Korean social enterprises will experience.

Full paper download: Park C_social enterprises in welfare state regime.pdf

The 1997 Asian financial crisis rang the funeral bell for a development state model in Korea, which dates back to the 1970s. The then Kim Dae-jung administration, liberal reformist, launched a strong restructuring drive in every aspect of the society, sharing neo-liberalist agendas with the International Monetary Fund and international financial capitals. The drive has led Korea on a new track for socio-economic development. The newly-established pro-market development model, however, destabilized lives of people and widened socio-economic inequality. The lack of social safety net became dramatically problematic as traditional families, which had served as a substitute for it, had been undermined since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. In a tension between ever-increasing demand for social welfare and neo-liberalist pro-market framework, the Kim administration announced so-called "DJ Welfarism," which was nothing but a workfare. Korean welfare system was reduced to a limited social right based not on citizenship but on contribution, of which the approach was reformed from universality to selectivity. Korea's 'Productive Welfare,' where 'product' prevailed over 'welfare,' materialized 'social job project' initiated by the Labor Ministry, which eventually led to emerging of social enterprises. Social enterprise is a new experiment adopted from the civil society in a bottom-to-up way in the West where countermeasures of existing welfare state have exposed limitations in dealing with social exclusion amid increasing market competition. The Korean civil sphere remained relatively weak compared to the state power throughout the 1980s when development state model still played a predominant role. Since the 1990s, however, the civil society has quantitatively expanded and been a supporter of social enterprises as an effective way to counteract effects of the full-blown neo-liberalism after the 1997 financial crisis. But the legacy of developmental state has imposed a path-dependent restraint on civil society, depriving it of the chance to enhance qualitatively. Thus Korean civil society's organizational capacity has still remains feeble and weak to form social enterprises as organizations closely linked to regional communities and autonomously providing social values. On the other hand the success of 'social job projects' gave the Labor Ministry room for budgeting new pushes such as 'Social Enterprises Promotion Act' and 'Social Enterprise Authorization Act.' With these laws implemented, the ministry could exert significant influence on the process of Korean social enterprises' emerging because the government's supports and aids seemed quite attractive for those companies lacking self-generated motives. Consequently, in contrast to the West, Korean social enterprises have been adopted in a top-down approach. The result of 1st Authorization of Social Enterprises in January 2007 clearly shows us that they are actually 'for-profit version of social jobs' in the guise of social enterprises serving partly as government's hiring policy and partly as a sub-strategy of welfare reform aimed at transforming Korea into a workfare state.

Compared to the advanced countries, the employment rate of married women in Taiwan (41.2%) equals that of Italy (42.4%) and U.K. (47.3%), and surpassed that of Germany (38.4%) and Japan (17.6%). However, Taiwan's female employment rate decreases enormously while their children are aged above 3 years old. Another interesting finding of Sawako (2007) shows married women's income contribute much to Taiwan's household income about 20-45%. The female employment contributes therefore much for the family's income maintenance.

The other important pattern of female employment to be observed is the gender segregation of occupations. The service sector and the clerk position is mainly female-dominated work. The previous researches on gender segregation in labor market focus mainly on the following factors: human capital, gender bias from cultural perspective and rational choice approach. These approaches have the shortcomings of micro-analysis. This article aims to approach the problematic of occupational segregation and low female employment rate in Taiwan from the angle of Varieties of Capitalism (VoC) approach.

Based on the theoretical consideration of VoC, it is expected that firms needing highly labor skills and large size would prefer occupational or contributory insurance, whereas the employers with low labor skills small firm size would favor universal scheme. It is argued that the organizational capacities of the organizational actor (employer organization) would change this preference ordering. Contrary to Gary Beck's economic model, which assumes a single family utility function, this analysis suggests the investigation how labor markets and public policies shape gender stereotypes and for how child support rules may affect women's decisions about labor market participation.