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KMID : 1001320190460040187
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Social Welfare Policy
2019 Volume.46 No. 4 p.187 ~ p.217
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A Comparative study on Public Pension Politics between South Korea and the US: An analysis within the context of institutionalism
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Joo Eun-Sun
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Abstract
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Korean public pension and Social Security in the US are social insurances based on generational solidarity and both were expected to have financial problem in the future. However there has been no reform in Social Security since partial reform in 1983 though there has been nationwide pension debates a few times. Contrarily there was a structural public pension reform in 2007 eight years after partial reform in 1999 in Korea. Retrenchment of pension benefit of National Pension in 2007 was far steeper and faster compared to 1983 reform in the US. This study explores differences of pension politics of two nations with a view of institutionalism. Social Security in the US had lock-in effects in institutional change. Long history of Social Security has strengthened the power of interests group like pensioners. Elections in every two years and bicameralism made pension reform more difficult in the US. Public pension take-up rate, pension fund size, private pension market size and transition cost issue have affected policy ideas. This case study shows that the institution has effects on pension politics at all steps in the process. It shows that blame avoidance strategies differentiated according to the specific interests caused by pension institution design. Because of the structural reform in 2007, stratification of public pension to the Basic pension and the National pension will affect Korean pension politics through the changes of policy ideas and interest group formation and choice of blame avoidance strategy.
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KEYWORD
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pension reform, pension politics, institutionalism,, lock-in effect, blame avoidance
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