Delivering unemployment benefits in the developmental welfare state

We have witnessed the growth of the developmental welfare state in Korea for the last decade. While it maintains the developmental orientation in the overall structure, the developmental welfare state introduced a range of programmes to protect those who had been left outside. This paper has examined how such continuity and change were reflected at the local level of implementation where policy objectives are achieved in practice, focusing on the Employment Insurance Programme. This chapter analyses two waves of interviews, the first with local officials in 2005 and the second with unemployment recipients in 2010. All in all, our analysis presents a mixed picture. There has been a steady progress in terms of the range of social protection but in terms of inclusion and equal access to welfare falls short of achieving the new policy goals, protecting the unemployed. Nevertheless it is true that there has been positive development in these fronts as well. If there are continual policy efforts to address these short-falls, the developmental welfare state will be more inclusive while maintaining its developmental credentials.