Labor Market Dualism and the Insider-Outsider Politics in South Korea

The insider-outsider politics has become a growing research topic in comparative political economy and comparative social policy. In this paper we explore the trend and patterns of nonstandard employment in South Korea. The proportion of nonstandard employment is quite high, albeit decreasing slightly. Furthermore, the data shows that labor market outsiders are not adequately protected by social insurance scheme. Nearly invisible unionization rate among nonstandard employees make matters much worse. The results of our analysis of the outsiders’ political behavior suggest that outsiders tended to abstain from voting. They are found to not having distinctively pro-redistribution and pro-social policy preferences, relative to the insiders. Also, the outsiders tend to support both major parties of the center-right and center-left, if they do not choose to be a non-partisan.