• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.97-122
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• 2011

After global economic crisis, most countries increased the welfare expenditure as a part of stimulus package. As a However welfare expenditure was decreased radically as the crisis was transmitted into the financial crisis. Which turning point is the welfare state going through now? Although the need for the welfare and the role of the state to take responsibility of public welfare has increased because of poverty and polarization, responses of the state against the crisis had focused on the aid to the financial industry and cutting taxes and showed limitations in coordination. Financial limitation of welfare expenditure, political individualism, the change of class politics and the mixture of the welfare institutions and financial institutions make have a pessimistic prospect of the retrenchment to the minimalist welfare state. As neoliberal state is continued cash benefits mainly for the middle class is being decreased. As a result, the direction the welfare states pursue is prospected to win over the poor by strengthening selectivity in welfare provision rather than class coordination.