TY - CHAP

T1 - ‘Comparing social service system in Scandinavia and Korea and the direction of future development in Korea.’

AU - Abrahamson, Peter

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - Social services as defined here are relatively new phenomena unlike areas such as education or health care. Establishing social care services for citizens on a collective basis is hence an indica-tion of a mature or developed society. Both Korea and Denmark have opted for a universal approach to service delivery, but while the traditional Scandinavian scheme emphasizes service delivery as a right irrespective of household situation and income and wealth, Korea has chosen a means tested system. Furthermore Korea relies predominantly on market providers, while in Scandinavia the emphasis has been on public providers. A universal approach is motivated by avoiding the stigma and shame usually associated with receiving public assistance. To avoid that the words of Richard Titmuss come true that services for the poor tend to be poor services, contemporary social services are made available for all needy citizens, and to avoid that middle and upper class citizens opt out and create their own alternative systems publicly organized ser-vices must have a reasonably high level of quality. Administration of social services are usually located at the municipal level while health care services are organized at the regional or provin-cial level. Recently (2007) Denmark changed its administrative geography in order to better ac-commodate complex social service organization, going from 272 to 98 municipalities, and from 14 counties to five regions, thus increasing the average size considerably. The overall objective of this reform was to enhance the quality of services. The paper reports the evaluation and the policy responses following the reform.

AB - Social services as defined here are relatively new phenomena unlike areas such as education or health care. Establishing social care services for citizens on a collective basis is hence an indica-tion of a mature or developed society. Both Korea and Denmark have opted for a universal approach to service delivery, but while the traditional Scandinavian scheme emphasizes service delivery as a right irrespective of household situation and income and wealth, Korea has chosen a means tested system. Furthermore Korea relies predominantly on market providers, while in Scandinavia the emphasis has been on public providers. A universal approach is motivated by avoiding the stigma and shame usually associated with receiving public assistance. To avoid that the words of Richard Titmuss come true that services for the poor tend to be poor services, contemporary social services are made available for all needy citizens, and to avoid that middle and upper class citizens opt out and create their own alternative systems publicly organized ser-vices must have a reasonably high level of quality. Administration of social services are usually located at the municipal level while health care services are organized at the regional or provin-cial level. Recently (2007) Denmark changed its administrative geography in order to better ac-commodate complex social service organization, going from 272 to 98 municipalities, and from 14 counties to five regions, thus increasing the average size considerably. The overall objective of this reform was to enhance the quality of services. The paper reports the evaluation and the policy responses following the reform.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Social services, Quality, Denmark, Korea

M3 - Book chapter

SP - 3

EP - 23

BT - Quality Renovation of Social Service and Enhancing the Role of Local Communities

A2 - Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation, null

PB - Gyeonggi Welfare Foundation

CY - Gyeonggi

ER -