Purpose
This paper seeks to explain how third sector organizations in Korea reconcile their roles as advocates of citizens’ social rights to minimum income on the one hand, and implementers of work integration programs for ‘productive welfare’ on the other, through exploring their role in managing self-sufficiency programs for recipients of National Basic Livelihood allowances.
Background
The National Basic Livelihood Security Act, which was first introduced in 2000, has been upheld as a foundation of a rights-based welfare system in South Korea by ensuring a minimum income to all citizens. However, the Act stipulates that recipients of basic livelihood allowances who are capable to work participate in self-sufficiency programs, which require recipients to engage in work or other productive activity as a condition for receiving allowances. Third sector organizations have participated in the legislation and the subsequent revisions of this Act to construct a right-based welfare system, as well as partnered with the government as implementers of self-sufficiency programs.
The ‘rediscovery’ of the social economy has often been seen as a part of the wider context of the transition to ‘active welfare’ policies aimed at social inclusion and enhancing capabilities in Western European contexts (Evers, Laville et al. 2004; Lewis, 2004; Evers and Guillemard, 2013; Defourny, Hulgård, Pestoff, 2014). The involvement of third sector organizations in the delivery of self-sufficiency programs is a case in which third sector organizations are promoted as agents of active welfare in Korea.
In this paper, we show that the Korean case brings to light the potential tensions between citizens’ unconditional rights to welfare and the shift towards activation and capacity enhancement in social policy. Recently, there have been several studies that explore the implications of the transition from universal redistribution towards activation for social citizenship (Cf. Evers and Guillemard, 2013; Taylor-Gooby, 2009). However, there are few studies that focus on the tensions within the third sector as welfare state advocates and implementers of active social policy. As third sector organizations in Korea have developed as advocacy organizations that promote the rights of vulnerable people against the capitalistic market economy, they face the dilemma of advocating for citizens’ unconditional rights to minimum basic income on the one hand, and promoting their own spheres of activity as agents of activation and grassroots participation.
Methodology
In this paper, we explore how the different principles and policy goals of the third sector and government have respectively been played out in the development self-sufficiency programs. In particular, we examine how third sector organisations seek to reconcile their voluntary and solidaristic third sector principles with those of social citizenship in the welfare state.
For this purpose, we analyse policy debates regarding the development of self-sufficiency programs in relevant documents that reflect the ideas of, and debates among, relevant stakeholders. The documents include records of the National Assembly (especially the Health and Welfare Committee), whitepapers, reports and guidelines drafted by relevant government ministries (especially the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Employment and Labour), and statements and reports of third sector organizations (including self-sufficiency centers and their associations, as well as other relevant non-governmental organizations that have participated in the debates). This paper also refers to documents written by scholars, researchers and journalists, many of whom have observed, and at times even participated in, the debates and actual policy-making. Although the main method is document analysis, the authors also conduct interviews with stakeholders, as well as experts, of self-sufficiency programs.
Defourny, J., Hulgård, L., Pestoff, V. (eds). 2014. Social Enterprise and the Third Sector.
Evers, A., and Guillemard A. (eds). 2013. Social Policy and Citizenship: The Changing Landscape.
Evers, A., Laville, J., Defourny, J., Lewis, J., Nyssens, M., and Pestoff, V. 2004. "Defining the third sector in Europe," A. Evers, J. Laville (eds) The Third Sector in Europe.
Lewis, J. 2004. "The state and the third sector in modern welfare states," A. Evers, J. Laville (eds) The Third Sector in Europe. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Taylor-Gooby, P, 2009, Reframing Social Citizenship.
Lee, Y.H. (ed). 2005. Social Welfare Movements in Korea.
Association of Local Self-Sufficiency Centers. 2009-now. Self-Sufficiency Review.
Records of the National Assembly, Republic of Korea.
