In July 1997, the pension privatization was finally implemented in Mexico, which had been propelled by the Mexican government since the President Ernesto Zedillo´s inauguration. Mexico, thereby, joined the Latin American countries which have led the pension privatization boom all over the world, and provided with a crucial evidence for the neo-conservatism, which argues for the commercialization of social security.
The Mexican case is significant for welfare state researchers in the sense that it is the most recent and the most radical pension reform in the world. What more attracts our attention, however, is the fact that the Mexican pension reform was carried out in the economic crisis. characterized by IMF financial aid. Can we, sooner or later, observe the similar reform in Korea?
This study aims to analyze the backgrounds of the Mexican pension reform, and, through the comparison of Mexico and Korea, to diagnose the possibility of pension privatization in Korea. It can never be a total nonsense if somebody argues that the social reform including public pension is imminent in Korea because Korea, just like its counterpart, has been in economic trouble and has driven deep socio-economic changes according to the agreements with IMF.
The conclusion of this study shows that the possibility of pension privatization in Korea is, if any, non-existent, even though the two countries share many characteristics, economic as well as social. Unlike Mexico, Korea has kept a relatively high domestic saving rate, has accumulated not a little pension fund, and still has a room for the reform within the current public pension system.
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