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This study analyzes financial preparation for retirement of American men and women, using the 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). The purpose of this paper is to research the adequacy of retirement preparation for men and women in their positive savings periods.

This research uses probit analysis and multiple regression models to observe the statistical significance of several independent variables on retirement savings. The specific variables of analysis are socio-demographic, work related, financial assets, and attitudes about saving and investing for a sub-sample of individuals aged 35–45, 46–59, and 60–67.

For retirement preparation, income is a significant factor for both men and women aged 35–45. Excellent health is significant for both men and women aged 46–59, whereas the number of weeks worked per year was significant for men and women aged 60–67. In addition, health has significant positive effects on the amount of financial wealth invested in stocks while age has significant negative effects.

This research uses data from the 2013 SCF to analyze factors affecting retirement preparation for men and women in their positive savings periods. The findings from this study can aid policy makers in designing retirement saving programs that can effectively incentivize individuals for adequately prepare for retirement.

Previous studies have focused on the effect of factors such as age, health, marital status, work history, education, income, family/household composition, and occupation on retirement savings over an individual’s lifetime. This study focuses specifically on retirement preparation or adequacy for men and women who are in their positive savings periods.

This study aims to conduct a quantitative meta-analysis of previous research on lifelong vocational education to generate generalized conclusions about its effects, set directions for future lifelong vocational education and identify implementation measures.

To conduct a meta-analysis on research results that have a heterogeneous distribution, it is important to specify the analysis category for examining the effects of research variables.

First, lifelong vocational education has an effect on dependent variables. And action appears to have the highest effect size on dependent variables. Next, when calculating the size of variables that had an effect on lifelong vocational education by educational type, the effect size of informal education was found to be larger than that of formal education. Finally, regarding the effect on the participants, office workers were influenced most, followed by university students, North Korean defectors, job seekers and foreigners.

Although this study attempted to conduct an in-depth analysis of subcomponents, it was not possible to analyze variables at a more detailed level. Therefore, future studies should aim to conduct a more comprehensive analysis of different variables based on a wider composition. Because lifelong vocational education is relevant to people’s daily lives, it should be investigated in the context of their personal characteristics and social backgrounds.

This research was designed to uncover general effects of lifelong vocational education and discover relevant variables affecting lifelong vocational education in South Korea. A meta-analysis of 15 studies with 67 subgroups examining lifelong vocational education was conducted.

In the current era of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity), lifelong vocational education needs to be organized systematically, unlike in the past. With the rapid advancements in technology influenced by artificial intelligence and the fourth industrial revolution, there is a surge in social demands for continued reeducation and redevelopment of employees to prepare for talent development paradigm innovation, increasing unemployment among unskilled workers and competence enhancement needs among job seekers and employed individuals.

This study aims to conduct a quantitative meta-analysis of previous research on lifelong vocational education to draw generalized conclusions on its effectiveness and discuss its implications for implementation measures. Specifically, this study will analyze the general effect size; differences in the effect size among different dependent variable groups; and the effect size based on lifelong vocational education participants.

Political analyses of the East Asian welfare state development often stress the importance of the power resource model, in which vibrant coalitions between the leftist party, interest groups, civil society and working-class unions have become driving factors in producing generous welfare outcomes. Challenging such analyses, this article discusses the convergence of the political attitude between political actors who are increasingly homogeneous (supportive) when it comes to the universal welfare state notion by focussing on childcare in South Korea.

By using desk review of the peer-reviewed literature and reports, this article investigates the causation for why political parties with different political ideologies were keen on extending childcare programs and its outcome in addressing the existing demographic problems in Korea.

Although the collective movement, especially in the 1990s and 2000s, had given important contributions to the early development of childcare in South Korea, more breakthroughs in childcare features were precisely and rapidly developed after politicians from different spectrums of political affiliations converged in their supportive attitude of the universal welfare. The driving factors of political convergence itself are not merely due to electoral competition or political activism; furthermore, it can be linked to the increased global institution involvement in domestic policy with extensive permeability, which, have ruined domestic policy development maintained for ideological reasoning and bring in more popular policy setting.

This article contributes to the growing literature on the political aspect of East Asian social policy studies, which goes beyond the traditional power resource analysis and makes a novel contribution to the childcare policy studies.

After the Korean War, South Korean politics was dominated by national security concerns. Reversing Carl von Clausewitz's well-known dictum, in South Korea, “politics is the continuation of war by other means.” Until the late 1980s, politics in South Korea was far from democratic. South Korea had five direct presidential elections (1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, and 2007) and six national assembly elections (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008) after the democratic transition of 1987. In 1992, a civilian candidate, Young Sam Kim, was elected president. Young Sam Kim (1993–1998) prosecuted and punished former generals turned presidents Doo Hwan Chun (1980–1988) and Tae Woo Roh (1988–1993) for corruption, mutiny and treason in 1995. Dae Jung Kim (1998–2003) was elected president in 1997. For the first time in South Korean political history, regime change occurred between a ruling party and an opposition party.

In this chapter, the change and continuity of civil–military relations through the fluctuating dynamics of the democratic transition and consolidation in South Korea is examined. A positive consolidation of democratic reform is one that, while securing indisputable civilian supremacy, grants the military enough institutional autonomy for the efficient pursuit of its mission. Civilian supremacy should be institutionalized not only by preventing military intervention in civilian politics but also by ensuring civilian control over the formation and implementation of national defense policy.

In sum, despite three terms of civilian presidency, civilian supremacy has not yet fully institutionalized. Although significant changes in civil-military relations did occur after the democratic transition, they were not initiated by elected leaders with the intention of establishing a firm institutional footing for civilian supremacy. South Korea's political leaders have not crafted durable regulations and institutions that will sustain civilian control over the military.

More than six decades, Korea is still divided. The most highly militarized zone in the world lies along the demilitarized zone. How to draw the line prudently between seeking national security and promoting democracy shall be the most delicate task facing all the civilian regimes to come in South Korea. That mission will remain challenging not only for civilian politicians but also for military leaders.

This chapter analyzes how institutional pressures have allowed for continuities as well as brought about changes in modern police organizations in Korea. When facing a legitimacy crisis, the Korean law enforcement system has typically responded with organizational restructuring. Strong myth-building patterns compensate for the lack of moral legitimacy of the police, particularly under authoritarian-military regimes that suppress democratization movements in Korea. Even after seemingly radical organizational changes aimed at placing the police under democratic control, highly institutionalized core structures of the police remain in place. Performance reform after the economic crisis, which was proceeded from reformers’ shared belief in the market-driven solutions, diagnosed the Korean police as a big, inefficient, and self-serving bureaucracy, a diagnosis that eventually caused gradual deterioration in the taken-for-grantedness of policing activities. The internet and social media made the Korean police even more vulnerable to external challenges and a questioning of its legitimacy.

This chapter presents an empirical effort for the theoretical applicability of sport diplomacy to sport for development (SFD) research by examining how sport played a role in pursuing South Korea's development at given four historical stages: (1) A prelude to Korean SFD before 1945, (2) sport for a new Korea between 1945 and 1960, (3) sport for developmental state between 1961 and 1979, and (4) sport for coming-out parties of the 1980s. This chapter supports current scholarly attempts to situate the 21st century sport for development (SFD) within the history of sport for social good, as well as approaches integrating the role of sport in the 19th century colonization and/or in the modern version of development during the post-war era. By adding an Asian case (South Korea), this chapter contributes to existing SFD literature mostly focusing on Western countries and their former colonies in Africa and South/Central America. It also contributes to the understanding of soft power's dualistic characteristics that direct domestic and international audiences with a new insight into the sport-development nexus in the history of South Korea.

The Hanbo (meaning Korean treasure) scandal or “Hanbogate” occurred on January 23, 1997, with the bankruptcy of Hanbo Iron and Steel Company, the second largest steel company and 14th largest conglomerate in South Korea, as its debt had accumulated to US$5.6 billion. Hanbo's bankruptcy triggered an investigation by the Public Prosecutor's Office that resulted in the imprisonment for 15 years of Hanbo's founder, Chung Tae-Soo, for bribing politicians and bankers to pressure banks to extend hugh bank loans to Hanbo. Nine other persons were also convicted including Chung's son, who was jailed for three years for bribery and embezzlement, and Kim Hyun-Chol, the second son of President Kim Young-Sam, who was sentenced to three years jail and fined US$1.5 million (New York Times, 1997).

Prodemocracy protest in South Korea in the 1980s can be described in terms of two waves of sustained activism between 1979 and 1987. One wave was brutally repressed in the Gwangju Uprising of May 1980, while the other succeeded in bringing in a transition to democracy in June 1987. How did activists recover from the repression in the first wave, and how did they create a viable movement in the second wave? This work focuses on the role of memory work about the Gwangju Uprising in the mobilization of the prodemocracy movement. Drawing on a wide assortment of documents collected from various archives in South Korea, the author demonstrates how memory work contributed to the movement dynamics. Cognitively, memory work radicalized movement participants such that they became completely disillusioned with the legitimacy of state power. Emotionally, memory work triggered a moral shock among recruits that motivated them to take the high risks associated with activism. Relationally, memory work provided a bonding experience for activists within a network. The findings also show a process through which memory work becomes a powerful social force: emergence of a challenger, proliferation of an alternative narrative, and then a full-blown contention between the state and a challenger. The process also means changes of the status of memory in terms of ownership, salience, and valence.