This article was downloaded by: [Heriot-Watt University]

On: 09 July 2013, At: 23:02

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number:
1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street,
London W1T 3JH, UK

Housing Studies
Publication details, including instructions for
authors and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/chos20

Housing Policies and the

Little Tigers: How Do
They Compare with Other
Industrialised Countries?
John Doling
Published online: 14 Jul 2010.

To cite this article: John Doling (1999) Housing Policies and the Little Tigers:
How Do They Compare with Other Industrialised Countries?, Housing Studies,
14:2, 229-250, DOI: 10.1080/02673039982939

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02673039982939

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all
the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our
platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors
make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy,
completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any
opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and
views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor
& Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and
should be independently verified with primary sources of information.
Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,
proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities
whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in
connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study
purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution,
reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any
form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access
 and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-
conditions
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013
 H ousing Stud ies, V ol. 14, N o. 2, 229± 250 , 1999

H ousing Policie s and the Little T ige rs: H ow D o T he y

C om pare w ith O the r Industria lise d C ountrie s?

JO H N D O LIN G
D ep artm ent of So cia l Po licy a nd Social W ork , U niversity of B irm ing h am , U K

[P aper ® rst re ceive d June 1 9 9 7; in ® na l form A ugust 1 9 9 7 ]

Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

A BSTRACT This pape r locates the housing policies of the little tiger countriesÐ H ong
K ong, Singapore, So uth Korea and Ta iw anÐ in the policy regimes approach found in the
literature de aling w ith other industrialised coun tries. It begins by establishing three
regime type sÐ liberal, com m unist and corporatistÐ de scribing different balances of
m arket and state in the development, construction and consum ption phases of housing
provision. Bu ilding on a discussion of the ge neral approach in the little tiger countries
to econo m ic and social policy, and particularly of the nature and extent of state
intervention in their housing policies, it proposes that toge ther the y represent a fourth
regime type , one that can be characterised as corporatist in production and liberal in
consum ption.

Introduction

O ver the past tw o decades the housing policy literature has been characterised
by an increasing emphasis on com parative studies, an d yet in some respects the
literature has remained relative ly segm en ted, w ith different parts of the w orld,
de® ne d by their nature and stage of economic development as well as ge ogra-
phy, being researched by different people for different audiences. The segmen -
tation is not absolute, but studies of housing policy in the new industrialised
countries (N IC) in the Asia Paci® c regionÐ the Little Tigers of H ong Kong,
Sin gapore, South Korea an d Taiw an Ð for exam ple, are not particularly well
know n in the West. One of the consequences has been that there are here tw o
bodies of literature largely using different theoretical perspectives and con-
structs, an d askin g different questions of their em pirical materia l so that the
an alysis of housing policy in the old in dustrialised countries (OIC) and the N IC
are not well integrated.
This separation can be seen in the literature from an d ab out the O IC w hich has
explored classi® catory schemes of their housing policy regimes. The ® rst m ajor
exponent of the approach w as David Donnison, w ho in 1967 provided an
exam ination of housing policy regimes in w hich approaches and achievemen ts
in different countries were classi® ed. Setting w hat are now the former European
communist countries (ECC ) to one side, he divided the OIC into those w hich
were characterised by social or residual systems an d those by com prehe nsive
ones. Thirty years later there have been several other exercises in draw ing up

0267 ± 3037 /99/020229 ± 22 $7.00 Ó 199 9 C arfa x Pub lish ing L td

 230 John D oling

classi® catory sche mes, notably by Kemeny (19 81, 19 95) an d by B ar low &
D uncan (1994) w ho have ex tended to housing policy the E sp ing A n dersen
typology (E sp in g A ndersen, 1990) w h ich deals w ith the ge neral case of welfare
p olicy. In all these classi® cations there h as been a focus in w ard s on under-
standin g housin g p olicy differen ces an d sim ilarities in term s of the particula r
course an d nature of econom ic an d p olitical develop ments w h ich h ave charac-
terised the O IC .
The objective of this paper is to draw on the literature concerned w ith housing
policy in the O IC in order to locate their characteristic features alongside the
characteristic features of policy in the individual N IC as well as the EC C. This
is a very broad or macro-exam ination of ke y features or organisin g principles
rather than a reporting of institutional, legislative or other detail. It proceeds by
layin g dow n tw o found ation stones. The ® rst deals w ith the nature of housing
provision, in particular the existence for all houses in all countries of the
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

consecutive stages of developmen t, construction an d consumption, an d for the

O IC an d ECC , at each stage, how policy can be described in term s of the broad
balance between the market an d the state. This facilitates the presentation of a
typology of housing policy regimes. The second deals w ith the nature of the
organ ising principles of econom ic an d social policy in the N IC, emphasising
some of the ke y differences from the OIC an d the EC C . Building on these tw o
foundation stones, housing policy in the N IC is introduced, in the form of
descriptionsÐ brief, because of the constraint of paper lengthÐ organ ised around
the development, construction and consumption stages . The paper argues that
these can be regard ed, collectively, as constituting a distinct m odel w hich differs
from both the O IC an d EC C models.

Ide ntifying and C lassifying H ou sing Policy M ode ls

The draw ing up of typologies of nationa l systems of policy has been character-
ised by the construction of ideal types against w hich real life countries can be
compared. N o one country exactly ® ts an y one of the ideal types, an d ge ne rally
an y one country m ay demonstrate elemen ts of m ore than one ideal type. But, if
typologies are to be of value there w ill genera lly be something ab out the ideal
types that m atche s, at least approxim ately, w ith a suf® cient num ber of countries
to have some credibility. The main typologies of national housing policy have
actually been remarkably similar in term s of the countries identi® ed as conform-
in g, m ore or less, to each ideal type (D oling, 1997). Thus D onnison’s social policy
countries, the US, U K an d Ireland, broadly match w ith the Barlow & Duncan /
Esping A ndersen group of liberal countries, an d his comprehensive countries,
Sweden, West Germ any, Netherlands, broadly m atch w ith Kemeny’ s cost rent-
in g countries w hich Kemen y in turn has equated w ith an am algam of Esping
A ndersen’ s social democratic and corporatist countries. There is some com mon
ground of these typologies, therefore, around the identi® cation of tw o ideal
types: the liberal an d the corporatist. W he re there is not comm on ground is
in the identi® cation of the processes w hich m ight result in each ideal type:
in D onnison’ s case they were related to economic development, in Esping
A ndersen’ s to the political forces establishing welfare state comprom ise; an d in
Kemeny’ s nationa l ideologies have been important.
The typology developed he re in order to provide a framew ork for uniting
an alysis of the N IC, OIC an d EC C is based on assessment of the balance in
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 231

Finance

Development Construction Consumption

Land

Figu re 1. H ousing provision.

Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

national housing systems of the marke t and the state. Whilst grouping together
subsets of countries that are broadly similar to the typologies referred to above, a
difference is that its basis is unlike them in being descriptive of ideological
positions about the appropriate balance between the market and the state, and not
following from the identi® cation of some social processes such as those resulting in
de-commodi® cation or the logic of industrialism. The background for the ideologi-
cal positions is a schema, proposed by Ambrose (1992), which recognises the main
stages in the housing provision process, through each of w hich all houses will
move from initiation to use and to demolition (see Figure 1). The development
stage involves an agent setting up the conditions whereby house construction will
take place. This will involve acquiring land and ensuring any requisite develop-
ment permission, acquiring ® nance, drawing up plans for the development and
engaging a builder. The collecting together of the basic factors of production are
necessary prerequisites of the construction stage which involves assembling the
raw materials into a physical shelter . Once built, the dwellin g passes to a further
stage during which consumption takes place. As with the previous stages this will
involve access to ® nance in the form of savings , income or loans.
At each of these stages states m ay intervene. The interventions may be
m arginal providing little more than a framew ork in w hich a free market
operates. There may be more or less strict regulations, for exam ple concern ing
m aterials, land development, an d construction standards, w hich impose con-
straints on the actions of m arket actors. States m ay subsidise some activities, an d
ban others. They may themselves replace private interests altogether by taking
on roles, at one or m ore stages , such as becom ing the developer, the builder, or
the ow ne r. At each stage, therefore, there may be a different mixture of market
an d state. The particular mix varies from country to country, an d, w ithin
an y country, from stage to stage. So, the developmen t stage m ight involve
predom inantly state actors an d collective interest w hilst the construction stage
m ight be the domain of private, pro® t maximising construction com panies, w ith
consumption perh aps taking m arket forms.
The large pro® ts to be made out of the development of land an d the ® xed
capital in the form of housing illustrate the signi® cance of this balance. The w ay
in w hich those pro® ts are treated by the state, w hether they accrue to private
in dividuals or society at large , and the extent to w hich pro® t an d the ability to
pay take precedence over social de® nitions of need in decisions about w ho
 232 John D oling

enjoys the consum ption of the ® xed capital are crucial to de® ning the nature of
policy. Th us, w he re the private interest dom inates there is likely to be specu-
lation in land, developers buying land in ad van ce of zoning chan ge or invest-
men t decision. Lan d is developed at its m ost pro® table use w hich may be, for
exam ple, of® ce or high income housing. This w ould be the case in a pure
capitalist country. In contrast, in some countries the state takes the dominan t
role. The com pulsory purchasing of land by the state at its ag ricultural value
m ay ensure that an y increase in its value, consequen t upon zoning or investment
decisions, accrues to society at large. This facilitates the meeting of social goals
in decisions about w hat sort of housing sh ould be provided for w hich groups.
It also allow s lower user costs w ithout recourse to ® nancial subsidies. As
D icken s et al. (1985) in their com parative study of Britain an d Sweden have
show n, the tw o startin g points are fundam en tally different w ith private interest
being dominant in the former an d collective interests in the latter.
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

The re may also be different market-state mixes at the consumption stage. This
m ay take expression in the range of housing conditions, by w hich is meant
quality and size, represented in the stock. In a purely market driven system the
outcomes w ould be such that high income households are able to enjoy highe r
quality housing than do low income households. In other w ords, because
housing is consumed as a commodity, consumption re¯ ects the market power of
in dividuals. In contrast, state dom inance in consum ption may be characterised
by de-commodi® cation an d equity considerations so that the rang e of housing
conditions may be less an d consumption may be correlated w ith need rather
than income. These tw o, polar positions may in turn be re¯ ected in tenure
distributions, w ith ow ne r occupation genera lly re¯ ecting the primary position of
private interests: the houses are ow ne d an d used by private individuals or
households, an y increase in value, for exam ple as a result of in¯ ation, accrues to
the ow ne r and the ow ner decides w he n to dispose of the dwelling an d to w hom.
In contrast, there are forms of social housing w here housing is provided by
agencies on a non or m inimal pro® t bas is, allocation is according to need rather
than the ability to pay, an d total provision is constrained by state decisions
concerning subsidy. H owever, tenure on its ow n is not a suf® cient description
of market-state mix in consumption since there are exam ples of ow ner occu-
pation w ith strong collective interests, perhaps because the state has subjugated
m arket outcomes by en suring that access to subsidised ® nan ce is mean s an d
needs tested an d houses can be resold only under state-speci® ed conditions.
Likew ise, it is possible for state produced an d ow ned housing to be consumed
in w ays that re¯ ect the market power of individual households (D oling, 1997).

H ousing Policy Re gimes

The different market-state mixes constitute the basis of a typology of housing

policy regimes. In a pure capitalist country, it w ould be expected that private
sector interests dominate at all stages in the housing provision process. Interven-
tions by the state are considered as residual an d are pursued only as an d w he n
households are unable to ® nd solutions through the m arket place. In those
countries w hich Donnison identi® ed as having social housing systems, an d
Esping Andersen as having liberal welfare regimes, for exam ple, the US,
C an ad a, and A ustralia , no attem pt is made to plan housing provision as a w hole,
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 233

(a) Liberal

Market State

Development

Construction

Consumption

(b) Communist

Market State
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

Development

Construction

Consumption

(c) Corporatist

Market State

Development

Construction

Consumption

Figure 2. H ousing policy regimes.

that being left to the in visible han d of the market. M uch housing provision is
in itiated and built by speculative builders. H ousing is seen as a private good the
am ount an d quality of w hich consumers w ill purchase in the form of home
ow ne rship or private renting according to their ability an d w illingne ss to pay.
There m ay be housing provided by the state but this w ill genera lly have a
residual role. Figure 2(a) provides a schematic representation of the housing
policy regimes in such countries.
In contrast, in a pure communist country, to w hich the former EC C approxi-
m ate, all three stages w ould be dominated by state interests (see Figure 2(b)).
O w ne rship of the means of production w ould be in the hands of the state.
Lan dlords w ould be perceived as members of the petty bourgeoisie w ho exploit
the w orking classes and housing as a basic right of all citizens. So, land w ould
be ow ned by the state, developed according to an overall plan, using state
capital an d state ow ned construction companies, an d allocated according to
bureaucratic rules at near zero rents.
The corporatist O IC constitutes a middle w ay . This is D onnison’ s set of
comprehensive policy countries. In Sweden, the Netherlands an d Den mark, for
 234 John D oling

exam ple, the market has been structured in order to be subservient to societal
in terests but w ith housing seen as a productive element of the economy. The
state takes the major role in determining housing production, num bers, types of
dwelling and location, m an ipulating desire d outcomes by its control over the
factors of production, w ith most construction undertaken by private companies.
Such countries have corporatist arrang ements w he reby powerful interest groups
are involved in the provision an d consum ption of housing. C onsidera tions of
equity are im portant and, as Kemen y (1995) has indicated, they have large rental
sectors in w hich cost renting alternatives dominate, depressing the deman d for
home ow ne rship by en suring that renting is attractive to households across a
w ide socio-econom ic range . One of the outcomes of their approaches is high
overall standards of housing w ith differentiation by income that is less than in
liberal regimes.
Of course, w herea s the three regime types have been illustrated by reference
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

to one or m ore countries, it m ust be recognised that they are ideal types so that
no country can be expected to ® t entirely w ith any one type. A t any one time,
each country may have elements of each ideal type w ith the balance between
those elemen ts changing over time. Thus, in most of the EC C there were
considerable am ounts of private housing, w ith much of the land market in
private hands, an d some private construction compan ies (Barlow , 1993). A nother
w ay of thinking about the ideal types, therefore, is as describing genera l national
tendencies rather than blueprints that match exactly.

Econ om ic and Social Policy in the N IC

N one of these three ideal types are adequate as descriptors of the housing policy
regimes of the N IC, w here the economic and social contexts and the balance
between private and collective, market and state have developed quite differ-
ently. Thus, it is no longe r original to make the point that there is an erroneous
view , w idely he ld, that the success of the Little Tigers, their phe nomen al (by
W estern standards) economic grow th, has been based on minimalist governmen t
in both the economic and social spheres. The se are exam ples, it is asserted, of
laissez-faire capitalism in w hich, beyond protection of domestic m arkets , insulat-
in g them ag ainst external competition an d thus providing home industries w ith
a strong base, the state has left economic grow th to the invisible hand, in the
process largely subjugating the welfare needs of the mass of their populations.
This, it is argued, has been econom ic grow th partly because of low social
overhead s.
The re is now a substantial literature arguing that to view the N IC as liberal
regimes rests on a fundamental misconception because, in reality , in all
these countries there have been deep interventions. Thus the secret of the
H ong Kong economy’s successful grow th can be attributed, in no small meas ure,
to regulatory government policies an d ad m inistered prices w hich effectively
subsidise the w age rate and contribute to the export-competitivene ss w hich
has powered its industrialis ation. Food has been imported from the People’s
Republic of C hina w ith the H ong Kong Government regulating importation
an d the interaction between w holesaler s an d retailers, so that there are
signi® cant non-market forces operating to keep prices to the consumer dow n
(see Schiffer, 1991).
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 235

Econom ic Policy and the G ove rne d M arket

M ore ge ne rally , W ade (1990 ) has argued that the secret of the success of at leas t
tw o of the A sian economies (Taiw an an d Korea) has been the `governed market’
in w hich states have taken major roles in ensuring that speci® c industrial sectors
have developed in w ays consistent w ith their perception of the national interest.
The argument can be taken further: that in a w orld w hich is alrea dy structured
w ith patterns of comparative ad van tage, the late industrialiser, in order to be
successful, is forced to ad opt in tervention in key sectors (A msden, 1989). In fact
there w as nothing ne w in this approach since in Japan there had been m odels
of governmen t-business co-operation developed before the Second W orld W ar
that proved invaluable in the post-w ar years also (see M orishima, 1982).
In practice, this approach has mean t that the governmen ts of the Little Tigers
have identi® ed w hich sectors of the econom y, particularly in the manufacturing
sphere, are essential to the national interest an d then developed their man ufac-
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

turing sectors by en suring high levels of investmen t in ne w technology an d

exposing them to international competition. In Robert W ade’ s w ords this is the
`governed market’:

U sing incentives, controls, an d mechanisms to spread risk, these poli-

cies enabled the governments to guideÐ or governÐ m arket processes
of resource allocation so as to produce different production an d invest-
men t outcomes than w ould have occurred w ith either free market or
sim ulated free market policies. (Wade, 1990, pp. 26± 27)

W hat A lice Amsden (Am sden, 1989) in her study of Taiw an has referred to as
ª deliberately getting prices w rongº actually involved considera bly more: subsi-
dies, tax concessions an d high levels of lending. This then gave governments
leverage over the actions of individual companies, cheap credit, import controls
protecting ag ainst foreign com petition, promoting joint ventures, all the w hile
being able to coerce by initiating, or threatening to initiate, tax investigations.
C rucial in getting this control over ke y economic sectors has been the state’ s
control over the ban king system com bined w ith restriction on the access by
businesses to capital m arkets . In these w ays states have in¯ uenced investment
decisions, pushing industrial companies into ad opting new technologies, ne w
practices and so on w hich w ould en sure the rapid transfer of new technologies
in to key industries by developing their intern ational competitiveness an d estab-
lishing a com parative ad vantage w hich enabled them to take on an d beat the
in dustries of the O IC. These were cases of governments taking ª initiatives ab out
w hat products or technologies sh ould be encouragedº and putting ª public
resources or public in ¯ uence beh ind those initiatives º (W ade, 1990, p. 28).
All of this became part of government strateg ies, en capsulated in sequences of
® ve-year plans in w hich govern ments set dow n targets for output an d achieve-
men t in different sectors in line w ith w hat w as considered ne cessary to grow
economically. This has been combined w ith strong interventions that at the
m acro-economic level meant monetary and ® scal policy. But it is individual
sectors of their econom ies, even individual industries, that intervention has been
particularly marked. In Japan , Taiw an an d South Korea, in particular, large,
diversi® ed conglomerates/corporations became part of the ® ve-ye ar plans. Be-
yond these few large conglomerates much of their economies has been occupied
 236 John D oling

by small an d medium sized ® rm s, sometimes part of the supply chain, w hich are
left to the free m arket forces.

C ontrasts w ith the O IC and ECC

W herea s there is a marked contrast he re w ith the w ay in w hich govern ments in

the OIC , particularly in liberal regime countries, think and act, there is likew ise
a contrast w ith the central planning characteristic of communist countries. Both
the in visible han d of the free market an d the public ow nership of the means
of production for their ow n sakes are rejected by the N IC in favour of a
m ore pragmatic approach to meeting nationa l goals. The N IC governments
can be seen to decide w he re they w an t to get to an d then seek to create or
in volve w hatever mechanism s or institutions seem likely to be m ost effective
in achieving that destination.
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

C halmers Johnson (1982) introduced the concept of the `developmental state’

applied to Japan, but by extension to some other Asian countries. In his view ,
the N IC state conforms neither to the liberal, Anglo Saxon tradition of a
m inimalist state responsible for law an d order, an d defence, nor to the com mu-
nist in w hich ow nership of the means of production is important in its ow n
right. Rather, economic goals are paramount being based on a strong consens us
an d w ith the role of political leaders being to achieve grow th. In the develop-
men tal state bureaucrats are told to ge t on an d organise grow th using w hatever
methods are to han d.
Hen derson & A ppelbaum (1992) have built on this earlier w ork to propose a
fourfold classi® cation of industrial societies. In m arket ideological countries, such
as the UK and U S, there is a belief in the superiority of the free m arket an d
economic an d social policies are implemen ted w hich re¯ ect this view . This can
be contrasted w ith m arket rational countries, such as the Netherlands, in w hich
the market is encouraged but used and structured by the state in order to meet
social goals. M atching approximately w ith w hat we have referred to as liberal
an d corporatist regimes respectively, both contrast w ith plan ideological countrie s,
those of the former eastern Europe, in w hich markets were replaced and eroded
by state ow nership of production an d distribution, an d plan rational countrie s,
those of south and east Asia, in w hich the state sets national goals an d
in tervene s in order to direct the economy as a w hole as well as its constituent
sectors to achieve them.
To tw o of these ideal types can be added a further distinction: both the market
rationa l an d the plan rational are characterised by forms of corporatism, but in
each the form is different. In the European form there is a much greater balance
of power as between the state an d the in corporated interest groups and as
between capital and labour. The south an d east Asian form is characterised by
authoritarianism an d top dow n imposition of the state’s agenda. Robert W ade
has summ arise d the difference.

The differences are in the freedom to organise, the balance of in¯ uence
between the state an d its incorporated interest groups, an d the in-
clusion or exclusion of labor. The European cases grant much greate r
freedom to org an ise interest groups, even though they restrict access to
the state. The balance of in¯ uence is more equal, w ith formal mecha-
nisms of consultation an d exchan ge . And labor is clearly incorporated
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 237

in to the arrang emen ts. The European form can be called `social
corporatism’ to distinguish it from Taiw an ’ s `state corporatism’ .
(W ade, 1990, p. 295)

Social Po licy

A further perspective on this is provided by Catherine Jones (1993) w ho

draw s distinctions between Esping Andersen’s ideal types an d the N IC
type. The latter clearly does not conform w ith his liberal regimes having too
m uch central direction an d too little sense of individual rights. They are
not social dem ocratic but also not conservative corporatist since they do not
accommodate the interests of the w orking class. Rather they represent another
regime type, one characterised by conservative corporatism w ithout w orker
participation, laissez-faire but not liberal, an d having solidarity w ithout equality.
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

These, then, are not countries in w hich there has been strong democratic repre-
sentation/pressure for improved social conditions. As a colony Hong Kong has
been able to avoid some of the political pressures often experienced elsewhere,
w hereas in all four countries immigran t groups have often been reluctant fully to
participate in politics. In Singapore freedom of thought and speech has been
limited with ª repress ion of both individual and collective actionº (Cuthbert, 1992,
p. 327). At the same time this should not be taken to imply, as is often believed, that
labour in the Little Tigers is repressed, docile and with little voice. Henderson &
Appelbaum (1992) argue that these countries have in fact ª experienced working
class mobilisationsº (p. 18) with South Korea being particularly characterised by
ª internal oppositionº (p. 18). Nevertheless, the social arrangem ent underlying the
N IC regime type is Confucianism and, although there are variation s across the
Little Tigers, it is the groupÐ the family, the ® rm , the nationÐ which takes pre-
cedence over the interests of the individu al. This is a highly structured and
hierarch ical system in which duty is owed upwards and responsibility down. The
family is the basic building block of a grand , nationa l corporation which is
characterised by authoritarianism , the incorporation and neutralising of oppo-
sition, and subservience to the needs of the whole (Jones, 1993). Providing a
framew ork structuring all this, is the dominant belief in the primary position of
economic growth in national objectives.
The combin ation of an unchallenged, nationa l objective of econom ic grow th
an d a belief in the responsibility of the family an d comm unity to care for its
members, mean t that free-standing social welfare services, established on
humanitarian or equity grounds have not been given high priority. In genera l
the role of social policies as w ith all other parts of the corporate plan, has been
to further the econom ic goals of the nation:
East Asian social policy has been more strongly shaped by the
developmental priorities of politically insulated states than by extra-
bureaucratic political forces. (Deyo, 1992 , p. 304)

In the early years of grow th, in particular the 1960s , the em phasis of the
economic strategy of these countries w as export-led industrialis ation based
in itially on cheap labour. Restricting ª social expenditure, in order to pour
national resources into the prim ary goal of national policyº (Ku, 1995 , p. 360)
also mean t that social services, social security systems, he alth care programmes
an d so on were limited in their development. In these early ye ars matters of
 238 John D oling

legitimacy, nation building, social stability were often crucial an d w hat grow th
in such programmes there w as can often be related to ª the emergence of political
crisesº (Ku, 1995 , p. 359) an d in the cases of Taiw an an d South Korea the fact
that ª political elites are obsessed w ith the threat of com munism º (M idgley, 1986 ,
p. 232). Overall, social welfare expenditure in the N IC of south east A sia has
remained sm all, in terms of GD P per capita, in comparison to that of the O IC
data on expend iture on social protectionÐ une mployment bene® t, w ork injuries ,
fam ily allow ances, sickne ss bene ® t etc.Ð indicate that these measures are less
well developed than in most Western countries.
In contrast, in the 1970 s the govern ments of the N IC began to sh ift their
national economic strategies tow ard the ª promotion of highe r value-added
m an ufacturing [w hich] prom pted greater investment in ª hum an capitalº along
w ith new strategies to en hance labor force stability an d productivityº (Deyo,
1992, p. 291). C onsequently education and training programmes were increased
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

in im portance to the extent that in comparison w ith the OIC they have in recent
decades taken far greater proportions of national G DP per capita. Together the
large am ounts spent on health and particularly education indicate a com mitment
to investment in human capital: ª the H ong Kong government is a m ajor factor
in providing a m ore he althy, more educated and better housedÐ and he nce,
m ore productive an d stableÐ w orkforceº (Schiffer, 1991 , p. 191).
W he reas these features support the notion of a distinctive C onfucian welfare
state, there may also be signi® cant w ithin group variation. W ithin the four N IC
under considera tion there is a distinction in the pattern of their social welfare
expenditures, between low spending (in relation to GDP) in South Korea an d
Taiw an on the one hand an d high spending in Singapore an d H ong Kong on the
other. Deyo (1992) attributes this to ª differen ces in degree of urban isation an d
in corresponding differences in the need for governmen t provision of social
servicesº (1992, p. 292). A n alternative view is that the differences re¯ ect the
importance of the British colonial exam ple, an d sometimes imposition, in the
cases of Singapore an d H ong Kong, an d the US tradition in the cases of South
Korea an d Taiw an (Jones, 1993).

H ousing Policy in the Little T ige rs

G iven this econom ic and social policy framew ork, w hat m ight be the nature of
the housing policy regime that constitutes the Little Tigers, ideal type? U nderly-
in g this regime is the dominan ce of economic grow th an d the w ay in w hich
housing is seen to be one of the foundations on w hich that grow th is built.
Follow ing from the view that the state bears the m ajor responsibility for
organ ising the conditions for grow th, it w ill play a major part in deciding the
nature an d level of housing development, organising the factors of production
such that their allocation in the housing sector is consistent w ith allocations in
other sectors. But, as Figure 3 suggests, the construction stage in contrast w ill be
the preserve of private, pro® t maximising compan ies that have, as in other
sectors, been coerced by the state into greate r ef® ciencies. In this regime type,
consumption is not governed by considera tions of de-com modi® cation, equity or
fairness , but rather re¯ ects the ability of individual households to pay for the
housing they consume.
To w hat extent does housing policy in the Little Tigers match up to this ideal
type? Some summary data are provided in Table 1 w ith the main features of
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 239

Market State

Development

Construction

Consumption

Figu re 3. The Little Tiger housing policy regime.

state intervention in the three stages of development, construction an d consump-

tion being presented below for each of the four countries. Although brief, these
descriptions are arrang ed around he ad ings that mirror the stages in the housing
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

provision process as a w ay of tying them to the sche matic representation of the

ideal type.

H ong K ong

D eve lopm ent

N ationa l plans. The origins of a co-ordinated approach to housing needs is

commonly traced back to the She k Kip Mei ® re in 1953 w hich w as the
culmination of a number of ® res in squatter areas . The H ong Kong Governmen t
in volved itself w ith the rehousing of those made homeless, in the process
creating the Resettlemen t Department. Large resettlemen t blocks, providing
accommodation of a very m inimal standard in term s of both size an d facilities,
were built. Although the achievement in terms of establishing a rolling pro-
gram me w hich resulted in the production of a third of a million dwellings by
1972 w as considera ble, there w as a recognition by the en d of this period of ª the
failure of the Governmen t to see housing as a w hole ¼ [and] ¼ a need for a
single Department of H ousing, responsible for all aspects of housing, both
private an d publicº (Yeh & Fong, 1984, p. 80).
In 1972 a ten-year housing programme, w ith a target of 1.8 million dwellings,
w as an nounced. The follow ing ye ar the H ong Kong H ousing A uthority w as
restructured, but despite its central role in bringing together the factors an d
agents of production the target w as undershot by a considerable am ount. In the
1980s some elements of the strategy, such as production targets an d the
development of new tow ns taking people aw ay from the urban core, remained
the same. In 1987 the govern ment announced the Long Term H ousing Strategy
for the period until 2001 . W he reas this indicated a continuation of man y policy
elements, there were also ne w emphases, for exam ple w ith respect to redevelop-
men t of the older urb an areas and the relative shift tow ards the provision of
housing for sale.

Land. Virtually all land in the territory is ow ned by the governmen t. Once land
is set aside for public housing and infrastructure, the rest can be allocated
through the market to optimum user and price. This provides governmen t w ith
considerable in¯ uence:
 Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

240
John D oling

Table 1. H ousing system characteristics

L argest GN P D we llin g % built % Persons % GD P

Population city as % % pe r capita un its sin ce % % colle ctive % w ith pe r on re siden tial
(m illion s) total pop. urban isation ($000) (000s) 1970 ow ned ren te d & other pipe d w ate r room con struction

1995 1995 1995 1993-4 1990 1990 1990 1990 1990 1990 1990 1990
C ountry (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12)

H on g K on g 6.2 95.0 95.0 17.1* 1 580 38.3 42.6 53.0 4.4 85.7 2.3 2.2
Sin gapore 3.0 100 100 19.3 513 Ð 55.0 39.6 5.4 91.8 1.1 4.1
S. K ore a 44.8 25.9 81.3 7.7 11 301 67.5 38.2 53.6 8.2 74.1 1.5 6.8
T aiw an 21.3 Ð Ð 11.6 4 237 71.4 78.5 12.8 8.7 79.4 1.2 Ð

S o urce : (1)(4) E nc. B rita n ica Ye arbo o k 19 9 6.

(2)(3) U N S tatistical Ye arboo k 19 9 3.
(5)± (12) E n c. Britan ica: H ou sin g a nd C on stru ctio n T a bles.
* 5 GD P.
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 241

By virtue of its ow nership of one of the three factors of production, the

govern ment thus in tervene s directly in one factor-market, land (by
setting aside land for public housing, setting leasehold conditions,
appropriating the rew ards from sales, an d in¯ uencing supply condi-
tions through land reclamation), and indirectly in an other, labour (by
situating public housing an d thereby in¯ uencing labour mobility an d
in dustrial location, for exam ple the new industrial areas of Kw un Tong
an d Tsuen W an , (Schiffer, 1991 , p. 189)

In fact, since housing, particularly in its ow ner occupied form, can be such a
large consumer of credit this in¯ uence may also extend to the third factor:
capital. The government also used its ow nership of land to meet other objectives:
clearing the squatter settlemen ts made land availa ble for commercial develop-
men ts, an d the in crease in land values, arising from the chan ge in use, realised
through public auction to the highe st bidder has ª become a major source of the
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

G overnment’ s revenueº (Fong & Yeo, 1987 , p. 33).

Finance . T he cap ital cost of the housin g progra m me has been m et by the
H ong Kong G overn m en t. U ntil 19 88, lan d w as provided free w ith the con-
struction costs being met, on a subsidised basis, from the Development L oan
Fund. The govern m ent w as ab le to offset th is expen diture from the reven ue it
gain s from the sale of some of the h ousing prod uced, the values of the
in divid ual d w ellings in part deriving from the govern ment’ s ow nersh ip of
la nd. T he post-1988 sy stem also p rovides a stead y ¯ ow of fund s to the housing
sector.

C onstruction

The H ong Kong H ousing Authority puts housing sche mes, both new -build an d
rehabilitation, out to tender to private construction ® rm s. Tenders are aw arded
not only on the basis of price but also the record of past achievement of each
® rm that tenders as well as the as sessment of their professional an d techn ical
capacity to undertake the particular scheme. The assessments are backed up by
strict regulation of construction standards w ith penalties im posed on ® rm s that
do not perform. These measures have encouraged the developmen t of large,
capital intensive an d professional ® rm s.

C onsum ption

H ousing policy in H ong Kong does not have a fully comprehensive set of
objectives being oriented to the needs of low an d lower middle in come groups.
Nevertheless, the scale of the housing programme has been such that 44 per cent
of the population lives in public rental housing.
Although the am ount of subsidy involved is very large an d the distributional
effects are considerable, they do not appear to be m arkedly progressive (Yip &
Lau, 1997). M oreover the impact of subsidies has been altered in recent years
through tw o major policy developments. In 1978 the H ome Ow nership Scheme
(H OS) w as introduced w hereby public housing tenants could be encouraged to
become ow ne rs of their ¯ ats. In part the intention w as ª to release their heavily
subsidised accomm odation for families in greater housing needº (Lim, 1989 ,
 242 John D oling

p. 27), but it has also facilitated the aspirations of low m iddle income groups to
obtain home ow nership. In 1987 a ne w policy w as introduced w hich meant that
if, after 10 years of residence, household income exceeded tw ice the income lim it
for entry into public housing, the household w ould face a doubling of their rent.
In 1996 this w as extended so that some better off tenants are required to pay
m arket level rents (Yip & Lau, 1997). These developments have had some affect
on encouraging such households to consider alternative housing solutions and,
over the sy stem as a w hole, could begin to en courage residualisation of the
sector an d to strengthen the correlation between housing circum stances an d
in come.

Singa pore
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

D eve lopm ent

N ationa l plans. The Colonial Govern ment ad opted the M aster Plan concept
from the British tow n planning tradition, but by the start of the 1970 s this w as
replaced by a broader strateg ic plan w hich set out a framew ork for residential
development, along w ith infrastructure an d other uses, an d w hich proposed the
creation of New Tow ns. W ithin this framew ork , in 1959 the H ousing an d
Developmen t Board (H DB) w as set up. For its ® rst ® ve-ye ar building pro-
gram me (1960 ± 65) the government’ s in tention w as to build as m an y ¯ ats as
che aply as possib le, in the process providing slum dwellers w ith ª a stabilising
in terest in the comm unity in a then politically turbulent Singaporeº (Teo, 1989 ,
p. 374).
In the view of Lee et al. (1993 ) the success of the H D B project w as due in part
to its conception ª as an integral part of an overall planº (p. 93) w hich itself w as
focused on national development. The public housing programme w as part
of the project to achieve economic restructuring and grow th. But, it had
further positive spin-offs related to economic grow th, namely the creation of jobs
(Teo, 1989), positive multiplier effects an d freeing valuab le land for urban
redevelopmen t (Lee et al., 1993).

Land. In 1960 , of the total land area in Singapore, the governmen t ow ne d 44 per
cent (Lee et al., 1993). Even so, in order to further its redevelopment plans the
govern ment recognised the need for powers to acquire land. U nder the 1966
amendments to the Land Acquisition Act, itself enacted in 1959 by the Colonial
G overnment, the government w as empowered ª to acquire an y land deemed
ne cessary to the interest of national development, including acquisition on
beh alf of private developersº (Chua, 1991 , p. 29). O w ne rs are com pensated for
the loss of their land but not at a level equivalent to its full m arket value so that
the A ct ª not only reduces the cost of acquisition but effectively cuts dow n
speculation, for every land holding is constantly threatened by acquisitionº
(C hua, 1991 , p. 30). W herea s in the case of residential land the collective interest
takes precedence over the private, land for commercial developmen t has been
excluded in order that the governmen t has been ab le to attract m uch needed
foreign in vestment into Singapore an d to demonstrate a ª com mitment to private
property an d pro® tº (C hua, 1991 , p. 30).
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 243

Finance . The key to the ® nancing of the large housing programme in Singapore
is the Cen tral Provident Fund (CPF) to w hich both employers and employees are
forced to contribute. In part this has been a mechan ism for chan nelling low
in terest fund s into the public sector, much of it, during the period from the 1960 s
to the 1980s , supporting the public housing programme. In ad dition, purchasers
of H DB ¯ ats can use their contributions to the C PF for both the dow n payment
an d loan repay ments (see Tan, 1993).

C onstruction

From the outset of the LIDB, the Singapore Governmen t took on the task of
achieving the m odernisation and capitalisation of the construction industry in
w ays w hich bear resemblance to the approache s to manufacturing industry. In
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

1960 construction had been dom inated by foreign builders w ith indigenous
compan ies being characterised by casual labour an d lim ited mechanisation. The
state arrange d for low interest ® nancing to encourage ® rm s to improve produc-
tivity, provided steady ¯ ow s of contracts so that building cycles could be
¯ attened out, provided technical assistance, and en sured availability of materials
from state operated industries. Together, these resulted in a trend ª tow ards
bigger local ® rm s an d highe r capital intensityº (Tan , 1993 , p. 83).

C onsum ption
In Singapore the nation building objective w as very im portant for the PAP
(People’s Action Party). It w as seen as a w ay of bringing stability to a largely
recent immigrant and racially mixed population an d housing w as to be one
vehicle for developing a sense of nationa l identity (Ooi, 1994). Cen tral to this
w as the creation not just of public housing, but public housing w hich w ould
become ow ne r occupied on the grounds that this w ould provide households
w ith a stake in the country w hich they w ould seek to defend (Ooi, 1994). A s Lee
an d his colleagues put it, ª [t]he purported aim of the Singapore governmen t
from the in ception of its housing programme has been the creation of a nation
w hose people have homes they are proud to call their ow nº (1993, p. 96).
At the outset, the challenge of the massive slum areas in 1960 , w as met by a
response w hich w as aimed at the poorest sectors of society, building sm all
apartmen ts to be let at low rents. As the w orst housing w as cleared, there w as
a move in the Second Five-Year plan (1965± 70) to build bigger and highe r
standard apartments, w ith better amenities, an d then in the 1970 s the w ork of
the H DB spread to m iddle income groups. In 1964 the H D B H ome Ow ne rship
Sche me had been in troduced in line w ith the government’ s w ish to create a
home ow ning society. Subsequently this has been extended to allow more an d
m ore groups in the population to become ow ners. Even though housing pro-
vision is dominated by the state, one feature is that in the H D B stock there is a
gradient of apartment sizes w hich is correlated signi® cantly w ith educational
levels, employment types an d incomes re¯ ecting their different prices (Teo,
1989). N otw ithstanding some successful attempts to achieve a level of social an d
ethnic m ix, the consumption of public housing is not based, therefore, on
principles of need or equality.
 244 John D oling

Sou th K ore a

D eve lopment

N ationa l plans. Since 1962 the program me for achieving national objectives has
been expressed in a series of ® ve-year national plans. In the ® rst of these the
emphasis w as strongly on economic grow th through developments affecting
m an ufacturin g industry. The housing sector w as given relatively little priority
w ith the main developments during the period being the reform of regulations
an d legislation. In subsequent plans, housing investment has taken a progres-
sively m ore prominent place. In the 1962 ± 67 plan period, ab out a third of a
m illion dwellings were constructed of w hich 12 per cent were built by the state;
in the 1977 ± 81 plan, 45 per cent of the 1.1 million dwellings were built by the
state; w he reas in the 1988 ± 92 plan 2 million, an d in the 1993 ± 97 plan 2.85 m illion
dwellings were programmed w ith, in both cases, the public sh are am ounting to
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

just under a half. As Dong Sung Lee has described the sh ift:

Korea’ s strategy since the 1960 s has been the acceleration of exports led
economic grow th at the expense of housing and the social welfare
sector. H ow ever, since the 80’s Korea’ s socio-economic policy has gone
through basic changes an d now housing an d people’s social welfare are
Korea’ s m ajor preoccupation. (Lee, 1990 , p. 62).

^
Land . The Korean Lan d Development Corporation (KLDC ), set up in 1979 , has
^
the task, w ith others, of acquiring land for reside ntial developmen t. W hilst land
^
in Korea is largely ow ned by private individuals an d institutions, it is possible,
under the Land Developmen t Promotion Law , for any area w hich is considered
appropriate for development to be expropriated by the state w ith compensation
to the origina l ow ners. This is in fact part of a programme of identifying,
expropriatin g and preparing through infrastructural developmen ts, suf® cient
land to meet the requiremen ts of the C onstruction Plan. The collective interest
is further supported by the imposition of purchase prices w hich are below the
m arket value, w ith one claim being:

The method of public land developmen t allow s the steady ¯ ow of

needed land, the recapture of `development bene ® ts’ , w hich is rein-
vested in other land developmen t projects an d contributes to the ® gh t
again st land speculation (Lee, 1990 , p. 71).

Finance . The major part of the fund s availa ble for the production and purchase
of housing comes from ® nancial organ isations established by the state. ª The re
isº , for exam ple, as H a (1987, p. 111) points out, ª no well developed private
m ortgage marketº . The Korea H ousing Ban k (KH B) w as established in 1967 in
order to collect and allocate fund s. The N ational H ousing Fund (N H F), set up in
1981 , raises funds mainly from saving deposits, lottery funds an d housing
bonds, lend in g the m oney on to ® nan ce development of smaller dwellings by
both public bodies and private companies. Broadly, housing development for
the lowest income decile is funded directly from the state budget, for those in
the 2nd to 5th decile from N H F and those from 5th to 7th decile from KH B.
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 245

C onstruction

The construction of housing is dominated by private companies. The H ousing

C onstruction Promotion Law w as revised in 1976 in order to achieve greate r
rationa lisation. Com panies are classi® ed by the M inistry of C onstruction an d
Transportation according to their assets, volume of production an d techn ical
expertise. The grow th of large, more capital intensive compan ies is en couraged
through favourable tax an d ® nan cial treatmen t. But, as Yoon (1994) indicates, the
balance of ª subsidisation an d control ¼ re¯ ects the power politics between the
govern ment an d housebuildersº (p. 85). This is, then, part of the corporatist
arrang ements. The outcomes are heavily in¯ uenced, however, by arrange ments
w ith manufacturing compan ies w he re the supremacy of industrial policy over
housing policy determ ines that the former has priority of credit allocation.
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

C onsum ption

The ® ve-year construction plans are based on a principle that different income
groups w ill have housing provided of different sizes, different tenures an d
funded from different sources. Thus the housing to be provided for those w ith
in come in the lowest decile is under 40 square metres, rented an d ® nanced
directly from the state budget, w herea s those w ith income in the 2n d to 4th
decile can expect either rental housing w ith ¯ oor spaces somew hat larger , up to
60 square metres, or small ow ner occupied houses, but in all cases draw ing upon
® nan ce from the N ational H ousing Fund . At the top end of the income scale, the
7th to the 10th decile, households w ould normally purchase large houses, of 85
square metres or m ore, built by the private sector an d funded by the commercial
ban ks . (M CT, 1996). H ome ow nership has been en couraged, also as a w ay of
draw ing back household savings into the state sy stem.

T aiw an

D eve lopm ent

N ationa l plans. Govern ment intervention in housing beg an in the mid-1950s at

® rst in response to large -scale homelessness arisin g from natural disaster, an d
later focusing on speci® c groups such as civil servants and labourers. The
approach w as selective and spotty, but it did give rise to a num ber of public
in stitutions w hich were to facilitate a later an d more comprehe nsive approach.
This developed from the mid 1970 s w ith the establishing of six- an d four-year
housing plans w hich detailed the governmen t’s commitment to a `home-to-the-
residents’ program me in w hich there w as an annual target of 25 000 housing
units (Che n, 1994). From the mid-1980s the strateg y has been w idened to include
encouragement of private sector development and loans to individual house-
holds. Under the six-year plan, 1996 ± 2001, there w ill be 45 740 publicly-built
units, 8900 units built using construction loans, 71 800 privately-constructed
units w ith government subsidies, and the governmen t w ill authorise 114 900
loans for the purchase of existing houses (Construction and Planning A dminis-
tration, 1996). W he reas the proportion of housing built or ow ne d by the public
sector thus rem ains fairly sm all, the government has a w ide in¯ uence on the
housing system .
 246 John D oling

Land. Lan d for the development of public housing is acquired in a variety of

w ays. Some has been alread y ow ne d by government agencies including the
m ilitary. Land is also acquired from private ow ne rs, taking some for the
construction of infrastructure such as roads an d public facilities, using some for
low -income housing an d returning some to the origina l ow ners. Development is
controlled by an extensive sy stem of regional an d city planning.

Finance . The ® nance needed to build public housing comes from a loan fund ,
topped up from the central govern ment’ s an nual budge t, an d lent to provincial
an d city governmen ts. The provincial and city governments in turn levy a land
tax, using the money to purchase land an d provide loans to individual house-
holds. Loans for construction an d purchase are also obtained from ® nancial
in stitutions.
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

C onstruction

Established in 1981 from the former Department of C onstruction, the C onstruc-

tion an d Planning Admin istration regulates the building industry. It considers
applications to establish new construction companies an d it classi® es existing
compan ies according to their capital structure an d professional expertise. This
determines the types of w ork they are perm itted to undertake.

C onsum ption

The main em phasis of housing programmes has been on home ow ne rship. Much
of the publicly constructed housing w as built for sale w ith buye rs, generally,
bene® ting from in terest loan an d property tax subsidies; there has been no
equivalent subsidy for tenants. The arrang ements have boosted the home
ow ne rship rate to around 80 per cent and, despite of® cial objectives relating to
the allocation of public housing, the main bene® ciaries are upper and middle
in come groups w ith low -income households often facing relatively high housing
costs. In C hen’s w ords, ª the present housing policy seem [sic] to have solved the
quantitative aspects of housing problems, but did not seem to w ork too well
regarding distribution problem sº (C he n, 1994 , p. 11).

D iscussion and C on clusion

These brief pictures of the market-state mix in each of the four countries under
review indicate signi® cant differences. In H ong Kong an d Singapore, perhaps
because of the constraints imposed by their high dens ities or of the importance
of the British m odel stem ming from their colonial position, the approache s have
had an earlie r and stronge r state intervention. N ational planning incorporated
large -scale housing development, w ith associated resource allocation, from an
earlier period w ith consumption in some w ays re¯ ecting the British tradition of
state housing. In the term s of Figure 3 the developmen t stage has very ® rm ly
been located w ith the state. The consumption stage, on the other hand, is less
pronouncedly m arket driven than the ideal type suggests, there being substan-
tial state involvement in the allocation of the extens ive public stock. Neverthe-
less, there seem s an important distinction between this and social housing in the
O IC, in that allocation m ore closely re¯ ects principles of ab ility to pay than of
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 247

need. The em phasis in South Korea an d Taiw an is slightly different. Here, the
A merican in¯ uence has been stronge r an d there have been more liberal
in ¯ uences on housing. This has meant that development has been less directed
by the state an d been m ore the outcome of the decisions of individual market
actors. It has also meant that consumption closely re¯ ects m arket outcomes an d
the ability of households to pay.
N otw ithstanding these an d other differences evident w ithin the four coun-
tries, the overriding conclusion is that of a regime type w hich differs in
signi® cant w ays from those en capsulated by Figure 2. There are in other w ords
some strong common thread s weaving through the developmen t of housing
policy in the Little Tigers. In the ye ars immediately follow ing the en d of the
Second W orld W ar the countries of south an d east Asia faced large sh ortages of
adequate housing, not only because of w ar dam age, but also because of the high
rates of population grow th and internal migration to urban areas . Existing
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

dwellings often became overcrow ded an d much new development w as in the

form of squatter settlements, resulting in insanitary conditions an d uns afe
construction (H a, 1987 , p. 3). In South Korea there w as the ad ded disruption of
the Korean W ar w hich brought both its ow n destruction and dam age to the
housing stock as well as m as s m igration of refugees from the north. W he reas
there were early interventions by the governmen ts of these countries, the genera l
picture (see Figure 3) has been one of their distinctive pattern of housing policy
developing after 1960 in w hich developmen t is typically dominated by state
planning, overriding private interests. W ith construction an d consum ption
follow private interests: a model w hich in provision is corporatist an d in
consumption liberal.
In each of the four countries the governmen ts came to realise, some sooner
than others, that the housing of the population had a signi® cance for national
economies. The realisation w as not simply in term s of a ® tter and more orderly
w orkforce, nor even nation building, but a recognition of housing ª not merely
as social overhead s in national development but rather as a productive sector in
its ow n rightº (Yeung , undated, p. 12). This recognition took the form of
in creasing attention an d support in national, ® ve an d ten-year plans, but the
implementation of those plans relied fundam en tally on the national governmen t
in each country being ab le to deliver the outcomes. These were not cases of
govern ments setting objectives w hich were little more than w ishful thinking or
statements of vague aspira tions w hich the private sector, if left to its ow n
devices, might deliver on.
In order to attem pt to meet targets, the governments of all four countries have
taken a m ajor role in the initiation of housing provision w hich has in volved
them in org an ising the factors of production. In Singapore and H ong Kong land
has been ow ne d by the state w herea s in Taiw an an d South Korea governments
exercise ow ne rship of development rights. For all, these arrang ements have
facilitated the planne d supply of land for residential development an d through
that they have also had leverage on the nature an d size of dwellings produced.
In ad dition, they have maintained strong controls over ® nance so that the
capital costs involved in large housing programmes could be met w ithout
comprom ising other national needs for savings an d investmen t. Through out,
the w ay in w hich governments have used and maintained their ow nership of
land, or rights over that use, has not been ideological, but rather it has been a
pragmatic device for achieving nationa l goals. Indeed, its threat to other interests
 248 John D oling

has been strictly controlled: in Singapore, land for commercial development,

attracting overseas investmen t in particular, has been excluded, w hilst in H ong
Kong clearing the sh an ty tow ns has been seen as a w ay of creating plots for
w hich com mercial interests w ould pay high prices to the government for the
right to develop.
W he reas private com panies have been used in order to undertake construc-
tion, the four governments have all used the techniques an d approaches applied
to the man ufacturing sector to direct or govern the market. Subsidies, contracts,
regulations and other devices have been used to en courage the grow th of larger,
m ore capital intens ive and therefore m ore ef® cient ® rm s. Far from threatening
private in terests this strategy of modernisin g the sector, en suring that techn olo-
gies available in other countries are ad opted in the domestic compan ies has
ensured that the real costs of housing production are lower than they w ould
otherw ise have been, w hilst opportunities for capital accumulation have been
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

protected.
If the development and construction phases bear resemblance to housing
policy regimes in some of the corporatist OIC, the consum ption phase is closer
to that of the liberal OIC. There is not a strong attempt to achieve equality in
housing consumption, or even a matching of household needs to dwellings.
Neither has the degree of de-commodi® cation been high. C onsumption is largely
determined by the ability to pay w hich in turn is highly correlated w ith labour
m arker position. H ousing is built, deliberately at different standards in term s of
size an d facilities, in order to m atch w ith income. So, even though public
housing sectors may be larger than in m an y liberal OIC, much of it is not
in tended for highe r or even middle income groups. It m ay not have the ® re risks
or the tem porary nature of the sh an ty tow ns w hich they have replaced, but their
size and the facilities provided often do not make them palaces for the people.
M an y dwellings in the Little Tiger states still do not have piped w ater an d ¯ oor
space per person is low (see Table 1). In all the N IC, home ow ne rship is
encouraged for middle an d highe r income groups, an d the outcome is a
m atching of housing quality w ith household in come.
Overall, then, the four Little Tigers have developed housing policy regimes
w hich differ in signi® cant w ay s to those w hich characterise the O IC an d the
EC C . In the Confucian, N IC, housing is subservient to the needs of the economy,
though it is seen as productive. The object has not been equality of outcome, but
rather a ® t, health y, disciplined w ork-force an d orderly development, particu-
larly in rapidly grow in g urban agglomerations w here land supply w as limited,
contributing to national economies.

A ckn ow le dge m e nts

I am grateful to a number of people for providing me w ith insights an d

in formation about housing policy in the Little Tigers: particularly H siao-hung
N an cy Chen, Kw ok Yu Lau, Jeong Su Lee an d Dong Sung Lee.

C orre spon de nce

Professor John D oling, Departmen t of Social Policy an d Social W ork, University

of Birmingham , Edgb aston, Birm ingh am B15 2T T, UK.
 H ousing Policies and the Little Tigers 249

R e fe re nce s
A m b rose, P. (1992 ) The perform an ce of nation al h ousing system s: a three n ations com parison,
H ou sing Stu die s, 7(3) , pp. 163± 176 .
A m sden , A .H . (1989 ) A sia ’s N ex t G ian t: S ou th K orea a n d L a te In du strialisa tion (N e w York, O xford
U nive rsity Pre ss).
B arlow , J. (1993 ) Reform ing the h ousing system in E as tern Europe , P olicy Stud ie s, 14(4),
pp. 53± 62.
B arlow , J. & D un can, S. (1994 ) S u ccess an d F ailu re in H ou sing P rovisio n : E uropea n Sy stem s C om p ared
(O x ford , Pe rgam on Press).
C he n, H siao-h ung, N . (1994 ) H ousing policy in the Repub lic of C hin aÐ a welfare perspe ctive. Paper
to the An glo-T aiw an Sem inar on Social Policy, N e w castle , U K .
C h ua, Ben g-H uat (1991 ) N ot de politicised b ut ide ologically succe ssful: the public h ousing pro-
gram me in Singap ore , In te rna tion al Jou rnal of U rban an d Re g io na l Rese a rch , 15(1) , pp. 24± 41 .
C on struction and Plan ning A d m inistration (1996 ) A n In tr od u ction to the P u blic H o using P rog ram s
(T aiw an , C onstruction an d Plann ing A d m inistration, M inistry of In terior).
C uthbert, A .R. (1992 ) In sear ch of the m iraculous, In te rnatio na l Jo u rnal o f U rban an d Reg io n al Re se arch ,
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013

15(2) , pp. 325 ± 329.

De yo, F.C . (1992 ) T he political e conom y of social policy form ation : East A sia’ s ne w ly ind ustrialized
coun trie s, in: R.P. A ppelbaum & J. Hen derson (E d s) S ta te s an d D e ve lo pm e nt in the A sian P aci® c R im
(N e w bury Pa rk, Sage Pu b lication s).
D icken s, P., Dun can , S., Good w in, M . & Gray , F. (1985 ) H o u sin g , States a n d L ocalities (L on d on ,
Methuen).
D oling, J. (1997 ) C o m p a rative H o using P olicy : G o ve rnm e nt an d H o using in A d va n ce d C ap italist Co u ntries
(L on d on , M acm illan ).
D on nison , D . (1967 ) T he G o ve rnm e nt o f H o using (H arm ond sw orth, Pe ng uin).
E sping A n de rsen , G. (1990 ) T he T hree W o rlds of W elfare C a pita lism (Prin ce ton, Princeton U nive rsity
Pres s).
Fong, P.K .W . & Yeo, A .G.O . (1987 ) H on g K on g, in: H a, Se on g-K yu (E d .) H ou sing Po licy an d P ractice
in A sia (Lon don , C room He lm ).
H a, S.K. (1987 ) K ore a, in: H a, Seong-K yu (E d .), H o u sin g P olicy an d P ractice in A sia (Lon don , C room
Helm ).
He n de rson, J. & A ppe lbau m , R.P. (1992 ) Situatin g the state in the East A sian de velopmen t proce ss,
in: R.P. A ppleb au m & J. He n de rson (E d s) States an d D eve lop m en t in the A sian P a ci® c R im (N ew b ury
Park, Sage Pu b lications).
Joh n son , C . (1982 ) M IT I an d the Ja pa nese M ira cle: T he G row th of Ind u stria l P o licy (Stan ford , Stan ford
U nive rsity Pre ss).
Jone s, C . (1993 ) T he Paci® c ch alle n ge , in: C . Jone s (E d .) N ew Pe rspectiv es on the W elfa re S ta te in E u rope
(L on d on , Routle d ge ).
Ke men y, J. (1981 ) T he M yth o f H om e O w nersh ip : P u blic ve rsus Pr iv ate Ch o ice s in H ou sing Te nure
(L on d on , Routle d ge ).
Ke men y, J. (1995 ) From Pu blic H ou sing to the S o cia l M a rket: Re ntal P olicy S tr a te g ie s in C om p ara tive
Pe rspe ctiv e (L on d on , Routle dge ).
K u, Y-W . (1995 ) The deve lopme n t of state welfare in the A sian N IC s w ith special refe rence to
Taiw an , S ocia l P olicy an d A d m inistra tion , 29(4) , pp. 345± 364 .
Lee D on g Sung (1990 ) Pu b lic h ousing policies for the low income d we lle rs in K ore a, P roce ed ings o f
In te rnatio na l Co n fe ren ce in K o re a H ou sing P olicies, pp. 59± 78.
Lee L oo Lee , L im L an Yuan & Tay K ah Poh (1993 ) Shelte r for all: Singapore ’ s strate gy for full home
ow ne rship by the Year 2000 , H abitat In te rna tio n al, 17(1) , pp. 85 ± 112.
L im , Yew -guan (1989 ) H igh rise ow ners, H ou sing , 25(3) , pp. 27 ± 29 .
M idgley, J. (1986 ) Ind ustrialization an d we lfare: T he case of the four Little T ige rs, S ocial P o licy an d
A d m inistr atio n, 20(3) , pp. 225± 238 .
M CT (1996) H o using in K orea (K orea, M inistry of C onstruction and T ran sportation ).
M orishim a, M . (1982 ) W h y H as Ja p an Succee de d ? (Ca m b ridge, C am b ridge U n iversity Press).
O oi, Giok L ino (1994 ) N ational ide n tity, public h ousing an d con servation in Singapore, H a bita t
In te rnatio na l, 18(2) , pp. 71± 80.
Schiffe r, J.R. (1991 ) State policy and e con om ic grow th: a note on the H on g K ong m odel, Interna tion a l
Jo urna l o f U rban a n d Reg io n al Re sea rch , 15(2) , pp. 180± 196 .
T an, W . (1993 ) C onstruction an d e con om ic deve lopme n t: the case of Singapore , H a bita t In te rna tio n al,
17(4) , pp. 75± 88 .
 250 John D oling

Te o, Siew -E n g (1989 ) Patte rns of ch an ge in public housing in Singap ore , T h ird W orld Plan n ing Re view ,
11(4) , pp. 373 ± 391.
W ade , R. (1990 ) G o ve rning the M arke t: Econ o m ic T he o ry a n d the R o le of G overn me n t in E ast A sian
In du strialisa tion (Princeton , Princeton U n iversity Press).
Yeh, A .G.O . & Fon g, P.K .W . (1984 ) Pub lic housing and urb an de velopmen t in H on g K ong, T hir d
W orld P la n ning Rev ie w , 6(1) , pp. 79 ± 94 .
Yeung, Y.M . (un date d ) A P la ce to Live (O ttaw a, In ternation al Deve lopme n t Research Cen tre , ID RC).
Yoon , Il-Se ong (1994 ) H ou sing in a N ew ly In du strialized E co no m y : The C ase of So u th K o re a (A lde rsh ot,
A vebury).
Yip, N gai M ing & Lau, K w ok Yu (1997 ) H ousin g, in: P. W ild ing (E d .), So cial W e lfa re in H o ng K o n g
(C helten h am , Ed w ard E lgar ).
Downloaded by [Heriot-Watt University] at 23:02 09 July 2013