Illan Nam, Colgate University, Feb 2011Draft <strong>in</strong> progress, please do not quote or citeSecond, the healthcare <strong>in</strong>surance <strong>in</strong>itiatives – as well as other welfare reformssuch as pensions and social assistance programs – were spearheaded by governments onboth sides of the partisan spectrum across the three countries and sometimes with<strong>in</strong>countries. In South Korea, the earlier <strong>in</strong>itiatives to expand coverage were undertaken bya right government (headed by the military regime’s candidate), while the 2001“Integration Reform” that established a s<strong>in</strong>gle-payer system was the legislativeachievement of a left-of-center government. In Thailand, the right-w<strong>in</strong>g Thaks<strong>in</strong>government was the key architect of the “30-baht card” scheme. F<strong>in</strong>ally, Chile’s AUGElegislation was proposed by the left-of-center Concertacion coalition. The lack of aconsistent relationship between partisanship and policy preferences casts doubt upon thepossibility that differences <strong>in</strong> ideological commitments accounted for the outcomes.More <strong>in</strong>trigu<strong>in</strong>gly, even <strong>in</strong> those cases where left parties were responsible for expansivepolicy <strong>in</strong>itiatives, such as the Integration Reform <strong>in</strong> South Korea and Plan AUGE <strong>in</strong>Chile, the ambitions of the reforms did not correspond to the strength and maturity ofparty organization and party system <strong>in</strong>stitutionalization. Party systems <strong>in</strong> South Koreaand Chile, for example, were characterized by significant disparities <strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>stitutionalization. On one hand, the Chilean party system rank<strong>in</strong>g as one of the moststable <strong>in</strong> Lat<strong>in</strong> America, 10 while on the other, South Korean parties have long beenidentified as short-lived vehicles of electoral ambitions for charismatic politicians thatwere not characterized by any mean<strong>in</strong>gful ideological dist<strong>in</strong>ctions. 11 Accord<strong>in</strong>gly,conventional wisdom would lead us to expect the Concertación to implement more10 See Arturo Valenzuela, Chile: Politics and Society, Scott Ma<strong>in</strong>war<strong>in</strong>g and Tim Scully, Build<strong>in</strong>gDemocratic Institutions: Party Systems <strong>in</strong> Lat<strong>in</strong> America, Siavelis, Peter, The President and Congress <strong>in</strong>Postauthoritarian Chile: Institutional Constra<strong>in</strong>ts to Democratic Consolidation11 Chung-In Moon and Jongryn Mo, Democratization and Globalization <strong>in</strong> Korea: Assessment andProspects (Seoul: Yonsei University Press 1999).12
Illan Nam, Colgate University, Feb 2011Draft <strong>in</strong> progress, please do not quote or citeprogrammatically left policies. But <strong>in</strong> fact, the organizationally weak South Korean leftparty achieved some success <strong>in</strong> construct<strong>in</strong>g resonant ideological cleavages aroundsocial, political, and economic issues such as North-South reunification, corporategovernance, economic redistribution, and welfare policy, and pushed through policiesconsistent with these preferences, even <strong>in</strong> the face of a divided government. 12Third, these three cases exhibit strong and relatively consistent economicperformances. Between 1990 and 2002, Chile grew by an average rate of 5.7%, SouthKorea by 6.3% and Thailand by 5.0%. Second, the three governments demonstratedprudent budgetary management dur<strong>in</strong>g this time. Chile reported a fiscal surplus of 1.4%,while South Korea recorded a fiscal deficit of -1.0% and Thailand a deficit of -1.5%. 13While there is some dispersion <strong>in</strong> these performances, nonetheless, the gap isconsiderably narrower than other <strong>East</strong> <strong>Asia</strong>n and Lat<strong>in</strong> American countries. These threecases exhibited reasonably comparable macroeconomic <strong>in</strong>dicators that reduce thelikelihood that sharp contrasts <strong>in</strong> macroeconomic management <strong>in</strong>evitably forced themtowards divergent social policy choices.Fourth, the three countries have coherent state apparatuses that have high <strong>in</strong>ternalunity and organization. The developmental state scholarship <strong>in</strong>formed our understand<strong>in</strong>gof the importance of state structures <strong>in</strong> not only achiev<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>dustrial growth but also <strong>in</strong>implement<strong>in</strong>g social policy. As Evans stated, “[D]ifferent k<strong>in</strong>ds of state structures createdifferent capacities for action. Structures def<strong>in</strong>e the range of roles that the state iscapable of play<strong>in</strong>g.” 14In his study of redistributive policy <strong>in</strong> Brazil, Weyland argues that12 Song Ho Keun, “Politics, Generation, and the Mak<strong>in</strong>g of New Leadership <strong>in</strong> South Korea” Developmentand Society 32:1 (2003)13 World Development Indicators, 2006 14 Peter Evans, Embedded Autonomy (Pr<strong>in</strong>ceton: Pr<strong>in</strong>ceton University Press, 1995) 11.13
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