In South Korea, the distribution effects of traditional developmentalism have been weakened since the 1990s. The structuralization of multi-inequality - unequal opportunity and uneven distribution of social resources including income, asset, and educa ...
In South Korea, the distribution effects of traditional developmentalism have been weakened since the 1990s. The structuralization of multi-inequality - unequal opportunity and uneven distribution of social resources including income, asset, and education are overlapped, mutually reinforced, and thus, expanded - is considered the main factor of this weakening. Moreover, multi-inequality in South Korea has been deepened through political process. Although procedural democracy has been, in some degree, established, the issues of differential, polarization, and conflict have yet to be raised as the official agenda. Even though several conflict issues are raised as socioeconomic agendas, but they still do not become 'political' ones that can be reflected and solved through public policy.
The purpose of this study is to show inequality in South Korea since the 1990s in terms of "multi-inequality", restructure analytical model through empirical analysis and research on the actual condition, and present alternative policy and discourse based on the above works. Accordingly, this study has three subjects; 'reproductive structure of multi-inequality', 'socio-political agenda building', and 'policy feedback'.
The outcomes of our research are as follows. First, a study on 'reproductive structure of multi-inequality' proceeded, divided into following sub-themes; Joint-distribution of income and wealth, Dual inequality of assets and income, Financialization and inequality of income-asset, German housing system, and Chinese urban redevelopment. As a result, we achieved the desired result to reveal the new trends and characteristics that asset has acted as a critical independent variable in the structural disparities since the 1990s. Furthermore, by cooperating with EU-GINI research team, our research team made the national report on inequality in South Korea. Many articles presented by our team also promoted the better understanding of a variety of aspects of inequality in South Korea.
Second, viewing from 'socio-political agenda building' perspective, our research team, setting up a hypothesis that "Inequality in South Korea has been worsened because multi-inequality has not been built as socio-political agenda.", verified this hypothesis through three articles; a study on policy and party support for redistribution by class stratum, a study on mechanism of the politics of tax discourses playing an agenda-setting role on redistribution, and a study on strategic behavior of private tutoring suppliers. According to these, while the issue of redistribution in South Korea is raised as political agenda and the political choice tend to be made by income and class identification, growth discourse and ideological issues of North Korea are still important factors in socio-political agenda building.
Third, our team conducted a study on 'policy feedback'; whether multi-inequality influence policy feedback mechanism and policy module that is could be moderated by policy. We verified this theme by following studies; a study on alleviating mechanism of income inequality among household through labor market participation and an effect analysis on how national basic livelihood security policy influences on welfare exit of the poor. Our research team also participated as a collaborator in 'The CSB(Centrum Voor Sociaal Beleid Herman Deleeck) Minimum Income Protection Indicators database' project. By co-working this project, we contributed to policy DB construction of international cooperative research with regard to basic income and minimum wage and thus, could gain research experience related to policy DB construction.
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In South Korea, the distribution effects of traditional developmentalism have been weakened since the 1990s. One of the main factors of this worsening distribution is the structuralization of multiple inequality, which can be defined as overlapping of unequal distribution of social resources including income, asset, education on the one hand and their mutually reinforcing on the other hand. Multiple inequality in South Korea has been deepened through political process. Despite procedural democracy has been established since late 1980s, democratic consolidation has revealed some defecits in effectively coping with multiple inequality. The issues of inequality often have failed to be raised as public agenda setting and public policies have proved to be ineffective in solving the problems.
The purpose of this study is to show developments of inequality in South Korea since the 1990s in terms of "multiple inequality", to build an analytical model through empirical analysis, and to elaborate discourse strategy and policy alternatives. It has accordingly three sub-subjects; 'reproductive structure of multiple inequality', 'socio-political agenda setting', and 'policy feedback'.
Main findings of our research are as follows. First, a group of study on 'reproductive structure of multiple inequality has focused on joint distribution of income and wealth, overlapping of assets and income inequalities, effects of financialization on multiple inequality. Our research has revealed that combined inequalities of income and asset have been aggravated since the 1990s and that asset inequality has played one of the most important factors structuring disparities. Our research has much indebted to international comparative research on "Growing Inequalities and their Effects(GINI)" in which national report on inequality in South Korea was submitted by our research team. Country report and book chapter presented by us are expected to promote better understanding of developments and causes of inequality in South Korea.
Second, viewing from 'socio-political agenda setting' perspective, we have made efforts to test our research hypothesis that inequality in South Korea has worsened partly because the issues of multiple inequality have failed to be volatile ones in socio-political agenda setting struggles. A range of studies on policy and party support for redistribution by class stratum, mechanism of the politics of tax discourses playing an agenda-setting role on redistribution, and on strategic behavior of shadow education suppliers have devoted to disclose the political processes of worsening inequalities. Another finding of our research is that while income and class have played role in selecting redistributive issue-raising and political choice in South Korea, growth-oriented discourse and ideology such as viewpoint to North Korea have been important factors in socio-political agenda setting.
Third, we conducted a study on 'policy feedback'; whether and how policy feedback mechanism affects multiple inequality. Our main themes were alleviating mechanism of income inequality among household through labor market participation and effect of national basic livelihood security policy on welfare exit of the poor. By participating to 'The CSB(Centrum Voor Sociaal Beleid Herman Deleeck) Minimum Income Protection Indicators database' project we contributed to international policy DB buildup with regard to basic income and minimum wage.