Social injustice and economic dynamism in contemporary Korea

Abstract

This article examines the processes of labor market restructuring and welfare reform in South Korea since the 1997/98 crisis, arguing that the Korean state-capital complex has succeeded in effecting a substantial redistribution of income from labor to capital. This redistribution of income has played a critical role in enhancing Korea's international competitiveness and in facilitating a return to sustained growth. The principal mechanisms through which this redistribution has been achieved are the intensified exploitation of weaker sections of the proletariat and the reduction of the traditionally more protected organized sections of the workforce in major firms. At the same time, the state has strengthened welfare safety nets and sought to place concerns about structural competitiveness at the heart of the welfare regime through the promotion of vocational training. What has been most striking about the process of welfare reform, however, has been the capacity of the state to limit the growth of welfare expenditures/provision whilst simultaneously creating massive new labor market insecurities. As a result of the success of the Korean state in restructuring labor markets in order to effect a redistribution of income from weaker sections of the proletariat to capital and limiting the growth of social spending we have witnessed a marked increase in inequality since 1997. Korea's apparent success in transforming itself into a competitive, dynamic neoliberal economy must, therefore, be understood as being symbiotically linked to the intensification of inequality.     

Uses of Social Capital in Russia: Modern,Pre-modern,and Anti-modern

A distinguished social scientist investigates the extent to which Russians today use social capital networks developed in Soviet times or before to produce welfare. Alternative hypotheses are set forth about ways of viewing networks in a modern vs. anti-modern context. Hypotheses are tested with a specially designed 1998 New Russia Barometer survey of all types of social capital networks. Conclusions are drawn about the networks Russians of varying education and socioeconomic status employ to get food and provide income security.     

Zwischen Kultur und Kalkül? Vertrauen und Sozialkapital im Kontext der neoinstitutionalistischen Wende

Trust and social capital work in social networks as informal institutions, favouring cooperation between the participants of such social interaction. However, the increasing use of both terms has been accompanied by vanishing conceptual and theoretical precision. In order to counterbalance this development this article tries to clarify some of the major puzzles connected with both terms. First, we embed trust and social capital within the institutionalist turn in political science. Second however, we demonstrate that trust and social capital have been modelled from at least two perspectives: sociological institutionalism and economic institutionalism. Furthermore, attempts of combining those approaches have lead to decreasing theoretical consistency. Finally, we propose that economic institutionalism is theoretically and empirically more fruitful to explain the creation and destruction of social capital.     

Schweizer Welten des Sozialkapitals. Empirische Untersuchungen zum sozialen Leben in Regionen und Kantonen

To what extent do the Swiss Regions and Cantons differ with regard to their stock of social capital? Based on the data of the Swiss Household Panel this article presents the first empirical investigation of the accumulation of social capital in Swiss sub‐national units in a comparative perspective. Empirical evidence implies that the cantons of the German speaking region show more social capital than the French and Italian speaking parts of the country measured by the engagement in voluntary associations, or the interaction with colleagues and the neighbourhood. However, the Latin cantons show a greater stock of social interaction among family and close friends. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence for the existence of five Swiss worlds of social capital varying among the various types of social interaction.     

The viability of the welfare state in Botswana

ABSTRACT

Vulnerability, mainly manifesting in poverty, economic risk and insecurities of life, is a universal problem. There are huge pockets of vulnerability in the developing world, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan African states provide social welfare goods to address vulnerability. Social welfare programmes cost money, hence, there is a need to consider issues of sustainability, particularly, given constrained revenue envelopes. Similarly, while Botswana has posted developmental successes, there are vulnerabilities such as poverty, unemployment and income inequality which demand intervention through welfare programmes. Thus, the objective of this desktop study was to discuss the state's response to vulnerability. It concluded that Botswana funds welfare programmes. However, there are affordability challenges, mainly, a constrained post-2007 fiscal space calls into question the viability of the welfare state. The general lesson from the case is that while the welfare state goes to the heart of the social contract, its viability must be guaranteed through reforms.     

Mobilität,Wahlbeteiligung und Sozialkapital in Schweizer Gemeinden

This paper investigates the relationship between mobility and voting behavior at different spatial levels. To this end, voter turnout in local municipality issues is compared to that in national matters. We find that the difference between local and national turnout strongly correlates with the mobility of a municipality's population. An explanation for the observed negative relationship is that social networks and the sense of duty towards the local community are weaker in municipalities where people are more mobile. In addition to this core result, it is discussed how mobility affects turnout at the local and national level separately, and it is shown how the different measures might be used as proxies for local social capital in a municipality.     

Donating and Volunteering as Social Capital in Bogotá

While the term social capital has been in existence since 1835, it only became popular at the end of the twentieth century, with the emergence of the associational revolution and the appearance of the third sector. Since then, non‐governmental organisations (NGOs), volunteering, philanthropic financing and solidarity organisations have all shaped a common discourse. From a social capital perspective, and on the basis of a social survey, this article investigates the determinants of solidarity and participation in NGOs in Bogotá, Colombia. We conclude that the expression of social capital in Bogotá is made manifest through donations and volunteering, factors which should be considered in fundraising activities.     

Employment Status,Social Capital,and Political Participation: A Comparison of Unemployed and Employed Youth in Geneva

Abstract: This paper examines the relationships between employment status, social capital, and the participation of young people in different kinds of political activities such as contacting, consumer, and protest activities. We focus on the role of social capital for political participation, addressing three related questions: Do unemployed and employed youth display different levels of social capital and political participation? Does social capital favor the political participation of unemployed and employed youth? Is social capital more important for unemployed youth than for employed youth? To address these questions we compare long‐term unemployed youth to regularly employed youth using original survey data. Our analysis suggests that the employment status has only a limited impact on political participation, affecting only consumer actions. In contrast, the social capital resulting from associational involvement is positively correlated to political participation. However, rather than countering the effect of exclusion from the labor market, it plays a similar role for unemployed youth and employed youth.     

日本公民馆与公共精神的培育

社会资本存在于人们相互交往而形成的关系网络中。公民参与网络是社会资本的重要组成部分,它是社会中公共精神培育的重要载体。日本公民馆促进了公民参与网络的构建,增加了民众间的社会资本,培育了公民的公共精神即平等精神、自治精神、参与精神。     

Looking for Sustainability: Environmental Coalitions across the State-Society Divide

This paper compares environmental policymaking in two Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and Cubatão. It examines the formation of state-society synergistic interactions in the public policymaking process and their effect on long term sustainability of social mobilization. It concludes that whereas social capital can be constructed in the context of policymaking, it is critically dependent on a concerted effort from both state and society actors to build trust in their daily interactions. The Cubatão and Carioca River cases show that state-society synergy had little effect on the ability of the policy coalitions formed for pollution clean up to sustain themselves over time. Instead, there are indications that rather than a constraint, the flexible and informal nature of such coalitions may have been a critical factor in their ability to carry out policy successfully.     

Social Capital,Migration and Development in the Valles Centrales of Oaxaca,Mexico: Non‐Migrants and Communities of Origin Matter

This article investigates the importance of place‐of‐origin communities to an understanding of the impact of migrant remittances on local development, employing the concept of social capital. Two aspects of social capital (each present prior to migration) are shown to be of significance–family relationships and community organisation. Drawing on recent research in two peasant communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, social capital is used to examine the relevance of non‐migrants in shaping the outcomes of migration in communities of origin. Evaluation of migrant remittances and home‐town associations demonstrates the developmental significance of non‐migrants and communities of origin.     

俄罗斯数字化转型与网络公共领域的生成

数字技术的快速发展在全球范围内掀起了一场剧烈的变革,深刻地影响着经济、政治、社会、文化等各个领域,这一进程被称为数字化转型。俄罗斯积极应对数字化浪潮,将数字化转型作为国家的发展战略,构建数字化转型的基础设施,推动数字经济发展。而在政治和社会领域,数字化转型的基础设施在网络空间促进了网络公共领域的生成,对政治参与和社会交往的方式、路径产生重大影响,推动了民主政治、市民社会、社会自组织的发展。与此同时,数字化转型也带来诸多风险,包括网络空间的无政府主义以及外部势力和政治反对派对现政权的威胁。在俄罗斯,网络空间建立秩序和规避风险的需求推动国家权力进入网络空间。数字化转型带来的机遇和挑战,是包括中国在内的世界各国和地区面临的共同性议题,俄罗斯的数字化转型无疑为我们提供了一个生动的案例。     

The Italian Welfare State in the Crisis: Learning to Adjust?

Abstract

After a decade of inertia, that left it unprepared to withstand the blow of the great recession, the Italian welfare state has witnessed significant changes since 2012. Externally driven consolidation in the wake of the sovereign debt crisis spurred yet another wave of social policy reforms after that of the 1990s. These reforms did not however invariably entail retrenchment. Both the Monti and the Renzi governments combined liberalisation with expansion of social rights, particularly in income support. As a result, the Italian welfare state looks more comprehensive than it was before the crisis. At the same time, there was no overall strategy of welfare modernisation based on coordinated social investment measures. The changes in Italian social policy since the outburst of the great recession highlight the importance of domestic politics interacting with external drivers of change. They also facilitate an assessment of the opportunity structures for further reforms in a political system that appears to be veering again towards consensus democracy.     

Elections and political parties in Hong Kong's political development

This article seeks to explore the influence of social capital on the decision to hire Chinese professionals to work for Taiwanese companies in Vietnam. We argue that this employment and migration pattern is mainly determined by the social capital of the Chinese professional transient, and is not based solely on economic calculation as push-pull economic theory describes.     

Facing Globalization: More Social Capital and the Ability to Act as a Global Player as Response from the EU

Some people think that more unfettered competition in the form of competition of systems is needed to respond to globalization. Federalists, on the other hand, think that a European polity should be based on the principles of autonomy, cooperation, subsidiarity and participation. Essential to the future competitiveness of Europe will be the accumulation of social capital. Social capital is the propensity of people to cooperate for common purposes. Its main features are social justice, trust, civic engagement and tolerance. A federal structure and a reformed welfare state would best fit the accumulation of social capital. But internal structural adjustment of Europe is not sufficient. The EU, as the world's largest economic entity, should acquire the capacity to actively influence the ongoing process of globalization according to its own values and interests. Therefore, the EU should become a global player. But a “global player EU” is not possible until member states can agree to further integration of “high politics”.     

Globalisierung und die Nachfrage nach sozialer Sicherheit. Eine kritische Analyse des „domestic demand“-Ansatzes

Comparative research on the impact of globalization and international competition underlined that public policies were strikingly stable, contrary to the expected cutbacks in social expenditures. This resilience of the welfare state is explained by voters’ demands for social protection which can be related to new uncertainties connected to economic openness. The domestic demand approach conceives the welfare state as a means to compensate for the employment risks resulting from a globalized economy, and as a means to foster the acceptance of an open economy. This paper analyzes the link between globalization, insecurity and domestic demand. It considers the class specific effects of economic openness. The domestic demand approach is subjected to a test based on data from the International Social Survey Programme (waves 1990, 1996 and 2006) and additional country-level features. The results show that unemployment makes citizen’s preferences for social security expand, while economic openness has a negative effect: the more open the economy of a country the lower social security demand of citizens. Contrary to the expectations, the more people perceive job security to be threatened the lower is support for social security. Obviously, citizens on the average are skeptical against rising unemployment protection since they fear higher burdens by social expenditures without directly benefitting from them. Those still employed do not vote for more expenditure. However, the lowest social class increasingly demands social security in the context of open economies. Over time, social security demand gets more mired at the low end of the social spectrum. The hypothesis that economic openness spreads economic risks and feelings of insecurity over broad social strata is rejected. The results support the debate on dualization processes.     

The politics of being a human being in Soweto: Identity as a social capital ‘Everything not forbidden is compulsory’ (T.H. White)

In this paper, the concept of social capital is redefined in the context of identity politics within contemporary South Africa. A case is made against the fetishism of identity dogmas that thrive upon closed historicity. Any narrative of subjective formation that is beckoned upon closed historicity is a predisposition towards identity ‘commoditisation’. As the term suggests, commoditisation implies that human subjectivity is ‘wholly’ dependent and measured ‘only’ through the compass of social capital. Commoditisation of identity means that human subjectivity is no longer transcendental but an object of possession – I am what I have or where I come from. This fixation on subjective acquisition and ‘possesivisms’ as an ethno-subjective repertoire for our overall subjective formation is identity fundamentalism. Although the notion of social capital in South Africa's context is a residue of South Africa's history of racialist capitalism, its present pervasiveness has generated a peculiar pattern of identity fundamentalism in which competition over economic resources has become construed as a threat to subjectivity. A reflexive understanding of this problem induces awareness for a healthy humanism.     

The Welfare Agenda of the Populist Radical Right in Western Europe: Combining Welfare Chauvinism,Producerism and Populism*

Recent scholarship on the populist radical right tends to imprecisely describe the welfare agenda of this party family with reference to its key ideological characteristics of nativism, authoritarianism, and populism. We propose an alternative analytical framework that considers the multidimensionality of welfare state positions and the “deservingness criteria” that underlie ideas about welfare entitlement. Applying this framework to a sample of four European populist radical right parties, we conclude that three interrelated frames inform their welfare agenda. These parties, we argue, advocate social closure not only on the basis of the deservingness criterion of identity (welfare chauvinism), but also on criteria of control, attitude, and reciprocity (welfare producerism) and on an antagonism between the people and the establishment (welfare populism). Understanding the welfare agenda of the populist radical right requires us to move beyond welfare chauvinism and to reconsider the concept of welfare producerism and its interaction with welfare chauvinism.     

Expressed attachment to Russia and social integration: the case of young Russian speakers in Latvia, 2004–2010

The aim of this article is to establish if expressed attachment to Russia, amongst surveyed Russian-speaking youths in 2004 and 2010 in Latvia, demonstrates any noteworthy correlations with factors promoting integration and feelings of belonging to Latvia. The correlation analysis shows that a sense of belonging to Russia and a sense of belonging to Latvia are not mutually exclusive. However, those Russian speakers in Latvia expressing a closer sense of belonging to Russia are also more likely to prefer an all-Russian environment, are skeptical of their rights and influence in Latvia, and are more likely to perceive discrimination in terms of citizenship status and ethnicity. These preferences suggest either a lack of integration or an “external homeland” influence.     

Explaining community mobilization in the city of Vilnius: a search for social capital

The article explores community mobilization in the urban environment. Specifically, it examines community organizations in Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius. Engaging with social capital theory, the article illustrates the actual community mobilizations, their stories, collective action strategies, and reasons for mobilizing. It challenges the assumption that mobilizations rarely take place in the urban environment of Lithuania due to low civil society and a nonparticipatory culture. This article shows that when mobilizations do take place, they can be short lived but still achieve significant results.