Unequal policy responsiveness in crisis: Comparing employment insurance reforms in two crises

Abstract This article examines why policy ideas emerging during crises sometimes become institutionalised while in other cases they remain unimplemented. We argue that policy responsiveness is shaped by unequal instrumental and structural power across first-tier and second-tier citizens. In South Korea, this hierarchy reflected institutional legacies of developmental citizenship, which accorded privileged status to workers in conglomerates and manufacturing production networks. Using a comparative analysis of employment insurance reforms during the 1997 Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, we find that policy expansion occurred when crises severely affected first-tier citizens, which include export-oriented conglomerates, their integrated subcontractors, and the workers employed therein. By contrast, proposals during COVID-19 largely remained unfulfilled, as the most impacted groups, including the self-employed and non-standard workers, occupied a marginal position. This unequal responsiveness can be interpreted through a three-gap mechanism – structural presence, representation, and political participation – underscoring that the institutionalisation of policy ideas is contingent on historically embedded power structures.