Full Description
East Asia is at the heart of the global economic transformation, and the countries of the region are witnessing rapidly changing labour markets, alongside the pressure to cut production costs and lower taxes in order to become successful 'competition states'. These changes have resulted in increased welfare demands which governments, organizations and agencies across the region have had to address.
This book examines welfare regimes in the Greater China region, encompassing mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. In so doing, it explores the ways in which the rapid growth and internationalisation of the economy across Greater China is presenting new social policy challenges that governments, social welfare organizations and agencies in the region are having to respond to. Rather than simply describing and categorising welfare systems, the contributors to this volume add to our understanding of how one of the major economic transformations of the contemporary era in East Asia is shaping welfare provision in the region. In turn, in this context of economic change, they examine the new strategies and measures that have been adopted in order to reduce the heavy burden on the state in terms of welfare provision, whilst also attempting to diversify funding and provision sources to meet the pressing welfare needs.
Based upon extensive fieldwork by leading scholars of social policy, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Asian social policy, comparative development and social policy, social welfare and Chinese studies.
Contents
1. Introduction: The Search for New Social Policy Paradigm? Managing Changing Social Expectations and Welfare Regimes in Transition in Greater China 2. After the Regional and Global Financial Crises: Social Development Challenges and Social Policy Responses in Hong Kong and Macau 3. Welfare Restructuring and Social (In)equity across Generations in Hong Kong 4. Financial Tsunami, Economic Insecurity and Social Protection: The Case of Hong Kong 5. Development Strategies and Poverty Reduction in Taiwan: From Authoritarianism to Democratic Governance 6. Bringing the State Back In: The Developments of Chinese Social Policy in China since 2003 7. Social Policy in the Macao Special Administrative Region of China: A Case of Regulatory Welfare Regime 8. Old Age Care Concerns and State-Society Relations in China: Public Anxiety and State Paternalism 9. Challenges Confronting the Taiwan Goverment in Welfare Provision 10. Public-Private Pension Mix and Its Governance: Japan and Taiwan Compared 11. Fiscal reform, Decentralization and Poverty Alleviation in the Context of China's 12th Five-Year Plan 12. Conclusion: Analyzing the Productvist Dimensions of Welfare: Looking beyond Greater China
