9-11 Sep 2015 Paris (France)
Understanding welfare diversity and evolution in Japan and Korea. A regulationalist interpretation
Sébastien Lechevalier  1@  
1 : Centre de recherches sur le Japon - Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales  (CRJ-EHESS)
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)

In this paper, which focuses on Japan and Korea, we argue that these previous analyses of Asian capitalisms have underestimated or ignored in-depth analyses of Asian capitalisms from the viewpoint of welfare (Takegawa, 2005; Holliday, 2000; Peng, 2004, among others), in adopting, at least implicitly, a perspective, inspired by the over-simplified typology of Esping Andersen, which can be qualified of “welfare orientalism” (Takegawa, 2005). Moreover and even more importantly, we argue that welfare is at the core of the evolving forms of capitalism in these countries. Our interpretation is that institutional change in Asian capitalism is driven by changes in the social compromise. To put it differently, emerging new forms of capitalism may put welfare on the top of their institutional hierarchy after that the failure of “financialisation” in Japan and Korea has been acknowledged.


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