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Video Description

Type: KIHASA Policy Featurette

Topic: Are Universal Welfare and Selective Welfare Two Sides of the Same Coin?

Guest Speaker: Shin Sung-sik, Welfare Reporter, Korea JoongAng Daily

Transcript

Since 2010, there has been a welfare debate ongoing over universalism versus selectivism. At first, the leaning was mostly toward universal welfare. With the inauguration of the Park Geun-hye government in 2013, however, the balance tilted towards selective welfare, or, as it was dubbed, ‘tailored welfare.’ A shift followed with the Moon Jae-in administration to universalism, framed as ‘inclusive welfare’, and now again, with the Yoon Suk Yeol administration in office, to selectivism, this time dubbed ‘welfare for the vulnerable.’ It has been swinging back and forth depending on the government in power. In my view, these governments aren’t that different in that they have all increased overall welfare provision. Let me put it this way. At the beginning, the current government has given out a lot of cash in disaster relief aid to small business owners. The previous government, over its term, has paid out disaster relief aid to all social classes over several rounds. The current government’s spending is substantial, if not precisely the same in amount as the previous one’s. Also, the current government’s planned parental allowance is just about as close as the previous government’s child allowance was to universal welfare.