Introduction

To have a growing national economy is every nation’s desire. With their remarkable economic growth, the East Asian Newly Industrialised Countries (NICs) – South Korea (hereafter Korea), Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore – have been a favoured topic of research over three decades now. This is not surprising when we consider the distinctiveness of their path to growth compared to their Latin American counterparts. But in addition their growth patterns have formed a new development orthodoxy which has achieved a relatively egalitarian distribution of income. However, whereas the East Asian NICs’ inexorable economic growth modified the role of the state, poor economic performance there in the past few years has led us to suspect the vulnerability of societies without adequate social protection mechanisms in place. If until recently observers were seeking to trace the developmental path leading to the economic growth of the East Asian NICs’, the question now is how they have publicly managed social risks.