Financing Welfare State Systems in Asia

Christian Aspalter is Professor of Social Policy and former Founding Head of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College in Zhuhai, China. His recent publications include Ideal Types in Comparative Social Policy (Routledge, 2020), “Welfare Regime Analysis: 30 Years in the Making” (International Social Work, 2019), The Routledge International Handbook to Welfare State Systems (Routledge, 2017), Development and Social Policy: The Win-Win Solutions of Developmental Social Policy (co-editor, Routledge, 2017), Health Care Systems in Developing Countries in Asia (co-editor, Routledge, 2017), Active Aging in Asia (co-editor, Routledge, 2015), Social Work in East Asia (Routledge, 2014), as well as Health Care Systems in Europe and Asia (coeditor, Routledge, 2012).

• Foreword. Part 1: Introduction. 1. Telling the Untold Story of Explosion, Stagnation and Continuation of Welfare State System Financing in Asia: An Introduction. Part 2: Theoretical Part. 2. A Pas De Trois in Social Policy Theory: Understanding the Financing of Welfare State Systems. Part 3: Case Studies. 3. Financing the Welfare State System in Russia. 4. Financing the Welfare State System in Turkey. 5. Financing the Welfare State System in Saudi Arabia. 6. Financing the Welfare State System in India. 7. Financing the Welfare State System in Thailand. 8. Financing the Welfare State System in Mainland China. 9. Financing the Welfare State System in Hong Kong. 10. Financing the Welfare State System in Macao. 11. Financing the Welfare State System in Taiwan. 12. Financing the Welfare State System in South Korea. Part 4: Concluding Part. 13. Income Polarity and the End of Social Insurance: A Concluding Note.

"As Christian Aspalter points out, the majority of the world’s population lives in Asia, but most of its welfare states are understudied. They are also rarely compared. Aspalter’s newest book, Financing Welfare States in Asia, is an ambitious and impressive effort to fill this gap. The book brings together experts on East, South and Southeast Asia as well as Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, to author ten comparative case studies of welfare systems from the late 1980s to the present...Overall, the individual case studies are excellent and the comparative approach contributes greatly." Linda J. Cook, Brown University, USA. "This is a long-awaited distinctive book on the construction and further development of Asian welfare state systems in general and welfare state system finance in particular. The inclusion of welfare state systems that is seldom found in international publications is a great bonus. While welfare states systems in developed countries are facing retrenchment, welfare state systems in Asia, under modernization and democratization pressures, witness in most cases rapid expansion. Despite the diversity in Asian development, the proposed normative theory of the developmental social policy framework offers strong appropriate reference for policymakers, and social policy teachers and students." Joe C.B. Leung, The University of Hong Kong.