This study examines the main reasons for the implementation of large scale redistribution policies and is searching for the role of ideology such as populism or socialism. The hypothesis that as income inequality grows, the policies for income redistribution are more prevailed under democracy is a generally accepted one among the fields of political economy and public choice. However, this hypothesis is not supported by the empirical studies and historical facts. The comparison of the redistribution policies between the US and european nations shows that the degree of income inequality does not make any difference for the tendency towards adopting redistribution policies.
 

The theory that the degree of redistribution depends on the political influence of socialism or socialist party is elicited from the 20th century history of the United States and Europe. In most of the european nations, socialist parties became the major political parties or one of the dominant players in the political arena. These socialist groups obtained sufficient political power to implement large-scale redistribution programs towards establishing the universal social welfare system in Europe. However, in the US, socialist parties never became major political parties and never obtained political influence to make socialist ideas realized as policies. This study shows that the hypothesis that the degree of redistribution depends on the political influence of populistic ideology such as socialism can be applied to the case of Korea. Korea has experienced 10 years of left-leaning governments recently, which shows the widespread acceptance of populistic ideology among people in Korea. This study offers the evidence of the ideological backgrounds of left- leaning governments through analyzing the intentions of their proposed policies. And this study also shows that redistribution policies and social welfare expenditures were growing rapidly during the era of left-leaning governments in Korea. This study proposes the political economy of populism  and based on this theory of political economy of populism the effects of the degree of populistic ideology prevailed on the adoption of redistribution policies in Korea are analyzed using several empirical methods. This study finds that as the government's position is closer to the leftist, the government expenditure for redistribution is increased by estimating econometric models using Korean data. The results of the estimations show that the above hypothesis can be applied to the case of Korea. The implications from the analysis of this study are clear. If the populistic ideology such as socialism is prevailed in the society, it is very likely that the large-scale redistribution programs towards the universal social welfare system will be implemented. In Korea, the populistic ideology such as socialism has been spread very fast and deeply into the people due to the influences of the left-leaning governments and teachers' union. The widespread acceptance of socialism among the public will have a long-term effect such as the expansion of redistribution programs in Korea. However, the expansion of redistribution programs towards the universal social welfare system will have a deadly effect on the long-term sustainable growth of economy because these programs will restrict incentives for work, save, and invest that will lead to limit the economic growth. Thus, the response to the spread of populistic ideology is needed and then it should carry the conviction that only the policies based firmly on the principles of market economy will induce innovative activities, sustainable economic growth, and eventually continue to enhance social welfare.