ABSTRACT
This chapter considers social policies and globalization pressures within the framework of comparative welfare regimes in the South, and describes the welfare regime(s) in East Asia. “Globalization” is frequently alleged to constrain and undermine national welfare states where they exist, to stall their development elsewhere, to encourage “social dumping” and to generate a “race to the bottom.” In the classic formulation of G. Esping-Andersen, welfare regimes are ways of conceptualizing the welfare programs, outcomes, and effects of those capitalist societies that have been transformed into welfare states. The welfare mix in the region is one of relatively low public responsibility, extensive family provision and redistribution, and growing private markets and community-based organizations. “Economic globalization” is changing the environment of welfare systems North and South, East and West. Its impact is mediated by, first, forms of global economic and social governance, and second, by national and regional welfare regimes.
