Democracy Isn’t Enough for Redistribution: Welfare Stagnation and Labour Weakening in South Korea and Taiwan

While democracy is often assumed to promote economic equality, its redistributive effects have proven uneven across contexts. This article examines South Korea and Taiwan—two countries that achieved rapid industrialization under authoritarian developmental regimes and transitioned to democracy in the late twentieth century. Despite early improvements in welfare policy and labour mobilization, both countries have witnessed rising income inequality since democratization. Through a comparative historical analysis, this study identifies two key constraints on redistribution: the enduring institutional legacy of the developmental state, which prioritized economic growth over equity, and the global shift toward neoliberal economic governance, which limited state capacity for social protection. These forces weakened labour unions, fragmented welfare provision, and restricted the political space for sustained redistribution. By tracing how structural and institutional factors have undermined democratic responsiveness to inequality, this article challenges the assumption that democratization naturally leads to more equitable outcomes. The findings highlight the need to reconsider how political and economic legacies shape redistributive trajectories in post-authoritarian democracies.