Productivist Welfare Capitalism: Social Policy in East Asia

2000/09/01 by Ian Holliday · 953 citations
Social Sciences · #Bureaucracy #Capitalism #China #East Asia #Economics #Economy #Labor Movements and Unions #Market economy #Political and Economic history of UK and US #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Social policy #Sociology #Welfare #Welfare capitalism #Welfare state

paper · doi:10.1111/1467-9248.00279

published in Political Studies 48(4), 706-723 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2000/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

The article engages with the literature on the ‘East Asian welfare model’ by using Esping-Andersen's ‘worlds of welfare capitalism’ approach to analyze social policy in the region. It describes the main features of a productivist world of welfare capitalism that stands alongside Esping-Andersen's conservative, liberal and social democratic worlds. It then shows that Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are all part of this world, though they divide into sub-groups within it. To account for productivist welfare capitalism in East Asia, the article focuses particularly on bureaucratic politics at the unit level, and on a range of key shaping factors at the system level. It closes by considering the implications of East Asian experience for comparative social policy analysis.

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