Social Policy Development in Authoritarian, Semi-Authoritarian, and Democratic Regimes: Comparing Long-Term Care Systems in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan
Daniel Béland (McGill University) et al.
March 11, 15:00 CET
Description:
Much has been written in recent years about the impact of political regimes on social policy development. In this paper, to contribute to the literature, we compare long-term care policy in three countries that are close culturally and geographically but that each possess a different type of political regime. First, mainland China is an authoritarian regime that is moving from a means-tested model to a contributory model, with policy experimentation on its long-term care insurance scheme, which is now implemented in 49 cities. Second, Hong Kong is a semi-authoritarian regime that has created a universal tax-funded model with a publicly subsidised but privately-operated delivery system. Finally, Taiwan is a democratic regime that has initially followed the footsteps of Japan and Korea for a social insurance model till 2016, but eventually implemented a partially tax-funded one that might further evolve to a hybrid system combining tax and social insurance. Drawing on a polity-centred approach and focusing particularly on state-civil society relations across distinct political regimes, the comparative analysis shows that the development and characteristics of each of these three long-term care systems reflects the nature of the political regime in which it is embedded.
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