아베내각의 사회보장정책에 대한 평가: 사회보장지출 추이를 중심으로

Abstract

This research aims to evaluate the social security policy of the second Abe cabinet, focusing on the changes in social security expenditure during 2013 to 2020. For the cabinet, which put priority on the economic recovery and the normalization of the nation, the control on the increasing social security expenditure is an urgent task to deal with, because it is the only option the cabinet can take, which do not want to increase the national tax ratio and the fiscal deficit. This research shows that the increase of social security benefits have been strictly repressed and a major cut has occurred in the pension and health care areas, which target the elderly. The Abe cabinet has succeeded in reducing the expenditure without occurring a popular resistance by adopting a not-so-conspicuous measure like adjusting pension indexation, which results in a progressive reduction of social security benefits in the near future. The social security policy of the Abe cabinet is evaluated as neo-liberal in the sense that it reduces the state responsibility for individuals’ everyday living, and sacrifices the civil life for an economic success. This study has an academic significance as it is a first attempt to evaluate the Abe cabinet’s social welfare policy, analyzing the changes in social security expenditure. The existing researches either fail to analyze what has really happened in social security areas by innocently focusing on the social security plans the cabinet has announced or rarely reflects a general tendency in the social security sector by solely focusing on such an individual social program as pension, health care, or family benefit. In addition, this research has a practical significance in the sense that it arouses a public concern over a government attempt for a social security cut for economic success by exposing the clandestine measures adopted by the Abe cabinet.