Park C U
Dongguk University, Korea.
New Solut. 1999;9(1):81-101. doi: 10.2190/0NQF-HNL4-G3AR-HU5Y.
This article is a study of the state's role in workers health in South Korea during the period of the 1950s to 1980s in which South Korea achieved its economic success through a series of economic development plans. The state's role in the protection of workers health will be examined by investigating the historical development of two main welfare state programs, workers' compensation and national health insurance, as the pillars of state policies on workers health. In contrast to the state's direct intervention in economic development, I will argue, the key characteristics of both workers' compensation and national health insurance are the state's minimal organizational and financial costs and the relative autonomy of firm managers. Also, the state first restricted the scope of beneficiaries to the core group of manufacturing and mining workers and then gradually expanded it over a long period of time. I will argue that such features suggest a strong dependence on business by the Korean welfare state programs that contradicts the image of a strong state that the scholars of East Asian states often claim.
本文是对20世纪50年代至80年代韩国国家在工人健康方面作用的一项研究，在此期间韩国通过一系列经济发展计划取得了经济成功。国家在保护工人健康方面的作用将通过调查两个主要福利国家项目——工人补偿和国民健康保险——的历史发展来审视，这两个项目是国家工人健康政策的支柱。与国家对经济发展的直接干预形成对比的是，我将指出，工人补偿和国民健康保险的关键特征都是国家最低限度的组织和财政成本以及企业管理者的相对自主性。此外，国家最初将受益范围限制在制造业和采矿业工人的核心群体，然后在很长一段时间内逐步扩大。我将指出，这些特征表明韩国福利国家项目对企业有很强的依赖性，这与东亚国家学者经常声称的强大国家形象相矛盾。
