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KMID : 1001320100370020001
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Social Welfare Policy
2010 Volume.37 No. 2 p.1 ~ p.28
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A Neo-Marxist Approach to the Local Government`s Welfare Function
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Jang Dong-Ho
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Abstract
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The significant variation in welfare function among municipalities has been widely analyzed by scientists in South Korea. Despite its popularity, the insignificant or negative correlation between social needs and local governments’ welfare efforts has remained as a puzzle, especially to pluralists and liberalists. In this paper, some empirical tests of the neo-Marxist theory of the State function were conducted over 230 South Korean municipalities using the local financial data. More specifically, the validity of the structuralist theory of the mutually contradictory functions was evaluated by assuming that the local government’s welfare function is structurally constrained by the local government’s pro-economic development measure in a capitalist economy especially with fiscal problems. For empirical tests, the local governments’ expenditure was categorized into the three functions of the State (i.e., production, reproduction and redistribution) and the expenditure ratio of each function was analyzed. The major findings are as follows. First, the function of redistribution is largely determined not by social needs but by the accumulation condition of local capital. Secondly, the function of redistribution is significantly limited by the expansion of productive and reproductive function performed by local government. Thirdly, fiscal crisis of the local governments is due to the increase in both their productive and reproductive function. Finally, the fiscal crisis constrains the function of redistribution. Based on the findings, this paper strongly argues that the neo-Marxist theory is valid and vital to understanding the local government’s welfare function.
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KEYWORD
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Local Governments, neo-Marxism, Production, Reproduction, Redistribution
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