ABSTRACT
This chapter compares and contrasts the process and substance of the different ways in which public assistance has developed over time. By definition, public assistance refers to state benefits paid out of general tax revenues without contribution conditions. It is usually subject to a means test and often seen as a last resort for the poor. Not surprisingly, therefore, as the first major state welfare programme introduced under the authoritarian military government in Korea, strong minimalist views on welfare were embedded in its structure. For over decades, strong beliefs about welfare dependency as a social evil undermining economic growth were institutionalised within it; this view of welfare dependency was held to aid economic growth and those who received welfare were stigmatised.
