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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2006
Healthy Democracies: Welfare Politics in Taiwan and South Korea. By Joseph Wong. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. 222p. $39.95.
Popular perceptions of social policies in East Asia are terribly out of date. Besides, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan have rapidly established social programs that are comparable to those found in Western countries but are often still described as welfare laggards. While public expenditure on social programs is still low, it will rise rapidly as the population ages and programs mature. Commentators on the region are yet to fully grasp the fact that governments there are no longer as single-mindedly focused on economic growth as the stereotypes suggest.