Tiger Social Policy in Context

Abstract

The sectoral chapters that follow engage in comparative analysis of the four social policy heartlands of education, health, housing and social security. In this chapter, we provide some necessary context for those chapters by examining the nature of the societies, economies and polities within which social policy has developed. Our aim is to sketch the social, economic and political development of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, and to provide a very brief overview of the role the state plays in welfare. As part of this latter aim, we make some general remarks in a section near the end of the chapter about the nature of the social policy process in our four societies.