THE POLICYMAKING PROCESS FOR THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM IN TAIWAN: THE NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE AND NATIONAL PENSION PROGRAM

This paper examines the policymaking process and contents of the two major social security policies of Taiwan in the 1990s. The National Health Insurance (NHI), which was introduced in 1995, was a mixture of success and failure. While it brought about universal health insurance, part of the original objective of creating a comprehensive welfare system through the NHI initiative was not realized. The attempt to introduce a National Pension Program (NPP) in 2000 went through dramatic turns in both policy contents and the prospects for implementation. Though it was originally designed as a modified form of social insurance, a general tax revenue‐funded defined‐benefit scheme was added as an alternative when a new government came into power. The bill, however, was withdrawn before the actual deliberations began. The author argues that policy legacies and actors, and the interactions of these variables within different policy phases, determined the policy contents and changes.     

THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM IN HONG KONG: ESTABLISHMENT AND READJUSTMENT OF THE LIBERAL WELFARE MODEL

Hong Kong's social security system has followed a “liberal” welfare state regime. The system has undergone changes along with the high economic growth, changes in the labor market, and transformation of the political environment, but has retained the fundamental principle of a social security system led by the private sector. In recent years, Hong Kong has responded to the aging population and growing unemployment by introducing the Mandatory Provident Fund Scheme that requires individuals to join private‐sector pension schemes and by intensifying cooperation with nongovernmental organizations. This indicates the deep‐seated nature of the influence of the liberal regime in Hong Kong.     

THE GROWTH OF THE KOREAN MIDDLE CLASS AND ITS SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

The middle class in the Republic of Korea grew quickly in the course of the country's rapid economic growth. This paper analyzes the characteristics of Korea's new and old middle classes by examining the socioeconomic conditions, experience of mobility, and social consciousness of the people in these classes Analysis shows that many people presently in these well‐off classes have experienced intra‐ and intergenerational mobility. While the old middle class is greatly open to both inter‐ and intragenerational inflow, the new middle class is close to intragenerational inflow. The probability of reaching the new middle class is greatly affected by one's level of education, however, education level largely depends on one's class origin. It is also shown that the Korean new middle class has a comparatively progressive social consciousness. However, people's political attitudes are determined not by one's position in the class structure but by nonclass factors, such as one's age, education level, and native region.     

CUBA'S SOCIAL POLICY AFTER THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE SOVIET UNION: SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AS LEGITIMACY OF THE REGIME AND ITS ECONOMIC EFFECTIVENESS

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Cuba has experienced a severe economic crisis, and the country's social policy has played an important role in showing the people a raison‐d'ětre for the revolution. This role has become even stronger in recent years, as internal and external actors demand political reforms and economic liberalization. This article first examines the Cuban government's use of social development to counter the demands for changes. It then looks at the extent that government social policy contributes economically to improving the Cuban living standard. The article demonstrates empirically how the leadership emphasizes their social accomplishments whenever demands for change come, and then shows that after the suspension of Soviet aid, Cuban social policy has been able to provide services mainly by relying on human capital and reducing quality materially because of the shortage of foreign reserves. This has limited the economic effectiveness of the services.     

THE POTATO MARKETING SYSTEM AND ITS CHANGES IN BANGLADESH: FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF A VILLAGE STUDY IN COMILLA DISTRICT

This paper analyzes the marketing system of potato in Bangladesh, especially the economic relations among farmers, traders, and cold storage owners and elucidates the structural changes in the rural economy through a village study. Investment in the potato market is capital‐intensive and risky, and is often considered to be vertically linked. The present study shows that farmers and cold storage owners do not invest in trading because of lack of time and “skill” to deal with urban traders. Besides, farmers face capital constraints and the amount of potatoes produced is too small to meet the demand of urban areas. Cold storage owners are confronted with increasing competition, which forces them to attempt to reach the storage capacity. Traders invest in the risky potato‐storage business. The return from it is declining but still high due to the “cheap” credit supply from the cold storage owners. There is no tied relation among the market agents any more.     

THE PROCESS OF INDUSTRIALIZATION IN TAIWAN

The industrialization of Taiwan has recently been in the limelight as an example of success rare among those underdeveloped countries which have received U.S. aid. This does not mean, however, that the achievement of industrialization in Taiwan has necessarily been due to U. S. aid. Cleraly, a more basic factor supporting the progress of industrialization has been the high level of accumulation in the agricultural sector, which has its historical foundation in the development of agriculture. The function of such accumulation has been to sustain the rapidly expanding surplus population; to provide an abundant labor force; and to form the base for capital formation for labor-intensive industry. The bold introduction of foreign capital and technology, resting upon this solid achievement, has provided the opportunity for industrial development.     

GENUINE SAVINGS MEASUREMENT AND ITS APPLICATION TO THE UNITED KINGDOM AND TAIWAN

The genuine savings index (GSI) is a simple indicator that can be used to assess an economy's sustainability. It defines wealth more broadly than orthodox national accounts, and recalculates national savings figures based on this new definition. Genuine savings aim to represent the value of the net change in the whole range of assets that are important for development: produced assets, natural resources, environmental quality, and human resources. This paper takes the broad framework developed in previous studies and tests its application with respect to the United Kingdom and Taiwan between 1970 and 1998, with the goal of assessing the feasibility of using such measures quite broadly as indices of sustainable development. The paper shows that both the United Kingdom and Taiwan have positive genuine savings rates over the period in question, with the United Kingdom registering lower ones than Taiwan.