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This study investigates the drivers behind the rapid universalization of Korean public welfare programs since the 1990s and the reasons why Korea remains one of the smallest welfare states among OECD countries. This study, relying on the “incremental change of institution”framework, examines the defending mechanism of social actors and the existence of persistent social cleavage. The main priority of developmentalist defenders was to keep government spending low. The universalization of social insurance realized bureaucratic rationality in order to maintain the small amount of public spending as well as democratization of social rights. As insiders of the welfare institution and main contributors of social insurance and tax, organized labor has been passive in the growth and universalization of public welfare programs. Korean welfare politics in terms of public and private welfare expansion has failed to adopt universal citizenship-based welfare programs that could weaken the division between the core labor force and the rest of the population.
