Asian Welfare States - Article Example

It is further observed that once the financial crisis took over the “miraculous growth” of Asian countries, and the “authoritarian rule” was disrupted in many of these countries, a shift came towards a welfare state from the “productivist” state model (The Economist). The result has been that in countries like South Korea, with only “about 67% of America’s GDP per head”, has put “the minimum income to the poor” (…) (at) 97% of America's poverty guideline” (The Economist).

But politically, these measures have been winning votes for both the ruling parties and the opposition (The Economist). But how far the welfare measures have reached the people is yet another question that dims the prospects of these achievements (The Economist). This is so because enrolling the people in welfare schemes and making aid available to them has been a Herculean task that is not even partially fulfilled yet (The Economist). One advantage of Asian welfare states has been the fact that they could learn lessons from the experiences of the developed countries (The Economist).

Also, it has been revealed that owing to new technological developments, implementing welfare schemes is going to be far more inexpensive for the Asian countries than it was for the developed nations in their earlier periods (The Economist). All the same, the increasing percentage of aged people in countries like Singapore and South Korea will put forth new challenges as well as there will be more financial burden on retirement benefits (The Economist). But despite these disadvantages, Asia is becoming a region that would in the future lead the welfare state team of the world.