This article deals with social policy development in South Korea and Taiwan. The focus of analysis is on the time variation in the extension of entitlement to health insurance to the non-wage-earning population, one of the most contentious social policy issues in the two countries. The article contends that the existing explanations of East Asian social policy are too general to provide sufficient insight into the historical dynamics of social policy development in the two countries. It argues for a historical institutional approach, since this allows an analysis of the particular role played by the political systems and culture of South Korea and Taiwan in social policy development, aspects which have often been neglected by earlier studies. In both South Korea and Taiwan, direct presidential elections and the diffusion of international norms are central to an understanding of the motives behind and forms for the extension of entitlement to health insurance to the non-wage-earning population.
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