The purpose of this study is to identify how a social welfare policy for the aged established with the 1981 Old Age Welfare Act in Korea was formulated, and what characteristics of its formulation process were, by analyzing the process of social welfare legislation for the aged with emphasis on the interest groups activity.
Today, it is general trend that the study of social wel fare policy leans either on the study of institution or on the study of performance taking social security study into prime consideration in Korea. Accordingly, the majority of the study are about analyzing social welfare programs, and little is about outer factors or inner motives of the policy-making.
Therefore, it can be said that the study of social welfare policy formulation is very significant. I chose social welfare policy for the aged, one domain of social welfare policies, and analyzed its formulation process and its characteristics.
Especially in this study I accepted the fact that there was interest groups activity in formulation process of social welfare policy for the aged in Korea similar to common activity of interest groups in non-western countries, that is developing countries. The study is to explore that policy formulation process & its characteristics through this interest groups activity.
In the analytic perspective of this study, "the study of process" among what they call, "3p" analytic perspectives which Gilbert & Specht sugested was selected. And this study comes under case method study with literature survey and personal interview.
The framework adopted in this study is "applied 10 stages of Jone´s Policy Formulation." And it can be divided into 3 parts. That is,
First stage: perception and definition of the problem of the aged as social problem(Jones´ perception and definition stage),
Second stage: the activity toward social welfare policy for the aged(Jones´ aggregation and representation stage),
Third stage: establishment of social welfare policy for the aged(Jones´ formulation and legitimation stage).
The period adopted in this study is from about 1970 to June 5, 1981 (promulgation of social welfare legislation for the aged). It is divided into 3 stages in accordance with the same stage as stated above.
The contents of this theses are:
Chapter 1 Introduction
I.I. Purpose and significance of this study
II. Method and scope of this study
Chapter 2 Theoretical background
I Formulation stage of social welfare policy for the aged and interest groups.
II. Social welfare policy for the aged before social welfare legislation for the aged.
Chapter 3 Formulation process of social welfare policy for the aged in Korea
I . Perception and definition of the problem of the aged as social problem.
II. The activity toward social welfare policy for the aged.
III.Establishment of social welfare policy for the aged.
IV. Characteristics in formulation process of social welfare policy for the aged.
Chapter 4 Conclusion
The results of the study are following:
Above all, in the aspect of the activity of interest groups, the Korean Senior Citizen Association, groups of professionals and the press contributed to social welfare legislation for the aged. On the contrary, until 1979 both bureaucrats and policy-markers were an obstacle to social welfare legislation for the aged.
And it was accepted in this study that in non-western countries interest groups existed and that their characteristics and functions were different from those of western countries. According to Almond & Coleman, therefore, the Korean Senior Citizen Association, groups of professionals and the press came under a category of non-associational interest group, and bureaucrats belonged to institutional interest group. In formulation process of social welfare policy for the aged, institutional interest group was more powerful than non-associational interest groups.
Next, the characteristics which were manifested in formulation process of social welfare policy for the aged in Korea are as follows:
Firstly, the most important factor among activity of interest groups in formulation process was informal and private efforts of a few persons, and bureaucrats´ knowledge and concern about the problem and welfare of the aged played the important function in agenda-setting & policy-making.
Secondly, the policy-making centered on the Executive and authoritative policy-making with initiative of bureaucrats could be found in this study, therefore the channel of policy formulation was very closed.
Thirdly, the policy was formulated promptly rather than steady and incrementally. Especially, since it was formulated by working-level bureaucrats, open cooperation of professionals and practitioners was not apparent.
Fourthly, during 1970s in Government´s priority to social security branch, social welfare for the aged didn´t have preference to other sections.
Fifthly, from the value influence on policy formulation, confucian Value or culture was one factor which had an effect on delay of the policy formulation and on variation of the policy contents to that of western countries.
Sixthly, the political party´s influence on the policy-making was not evident, and outer domains of social welfare for the aged, for exemple labor union and manager association didnot interact each other in the policy formulation.
Seventhly, it can be found that the policy formulation and situational factor were coincident.
Eighthly, to see the policy in terms of contents established with current social welfare legislation for the aged, it is doubtful to accept that the result of social welfare legislation for the aged improved the past condition of the aged, and the policy is limited to public assistance and social welfare services without social insurance, the backbone in social welfare policy for the aged.
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