Globalization, Inequality, and "Double Movement" in East Asia

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effects of rising income inequality on the welfare state in East Asia. Specifically, I explore and test two causal links: 1) the effects of economic globalization on income distribution, and 2) the increase in income inequality on the prospect of socio-welfare policies. Building on Polanyi's politico-economic concept of "double movement," I hypothesize that rapid neoliberalization and financial globalization in East Asia since the early 1990s (after the Asian Financial Crisis) has de-constructed the traditional state apparatuses that supported a well-known state-led accumulation strategy. This shift in political arrangements and national growth strategy, in turn, has entailed rising income inequality in a society, calling for restructuring the traditional East Asian welfare state. The success and failure of the creation of a new welfare state for new social risks depends on the level of contentious politics and country specific traits. With this general theoretical framework, I conduct a comparative method of five East Asian countries - China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan - for the period from the 1990s to the present, and explain the similarities and differences among them. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript