Overcoming Labor Market Problems and Providing Social Services: Government and Civil Society Collaboration in South Korea

The situation of the Korean labor market and welfare system evolved in the 2000s during a period that witnessed civil society playing a prominent role both as a provider of welfare and an inspirer for the implementation of welfare schemes (Labor Market and Welfare System in South Korea section). Emergence of a New Form of Collaboration Between Civil Society and Government section details the process that led to the installation of an ambitious minimum income scheme (the National Basic Livelihood System) and established the basis for a new form of collaboration and partnership between civil society and government in the fields of poverty alleviation and work integration. As a next step in this direction was enacted in 2006 the Law for the Promotion of Social Enterprises, which is presented and discussed in Social Enterprise Model As An Original Way of Addressing Different Social Issues section in reference to other experiences and social enterprise models. The conclusion insists however on the difficulties of preserving what was originally a balanced collaboration between government and civil society in a traditionally state-centered country.