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Industrialization and Welfare: The Case of the Four Little Tigers
Author(s) -
Midgley James
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
social policy and administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1467-9515
pISSN - 0144-5596
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9515.1986.tb00253.x
Subject(s) - industrialisation , newly industrialized country , variety (cybernetics) , industrial policy , social policy , welfare , social welfare , politics , economics , development economics , welfare state , developing country , developed country , political science , economic growth , sociology , international trade , market economy , population , demography , artificial intelligence , computer science , law
Established theories of welfare and industrialization have been abstracted from the historical experience of the Western countries and no attempt has been made to assess their empirical validity with reference to the newly industrializing countries (NICs) of the Third World. Reviewing the industrial development and social services of Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan (the four little tigers) it is argued that social policy development in these countries cannot be attributed to the effects of the conditions of industrialization in which political elites respond proactively to the demands of industrial change. Instead, social policy in the Asian NICs is largely incremental in character and the consequence of a variety of causal events which are not accounted for by established theories.