Marxist Perspectives On South Korea In The Global Economy

This volume brings together work by international scholars to provide a unique analysis of the past, present and possible future trajectory of Korea's political economy from a distinctly Marxist perspective. The volume differentiates the Marxian approach to the political economy of Korean development from the Keynesian, social democratic approach that currently dominates the critical literature. In doing so the volume provides a unique view of the development of the South Korean Economy.

This book problematises the statist underpinnings of the concept of the ‘developmental state,’ in terms of both state–society and national–global relations, challenging the notion that the state is the agent of national development qua being autonomous from the domestic and global economies. Presenting a thorough and comprehensive critical assessment of the extant approaches and theories of the Korean developmental state in particular, this book demonstrates that the existing literature, including Marxist critiques, only inadequately and partially challenge statism. It examines how statism reinforces and is reinforced by ‘Third World Developmentalism’, the idea that ‘development’ is in itself a positive goal and that a nationally autonomous mode of development should be promoted as a means of empowerment. In opposition, this book offers a critique of statism by constructing an alternative theoretical framework, extending Marx’s concept of commodity fetishism to state–society and national–global relations. Drawing on a new theoretical framework and significant Korean literature, The State, Class and Developmentalism in South Korea offers a novel historical interpretation and critique of the developmental state in the Korean context. As such, it will be useful to students and scholars of Asian studies, Development Studies and International Political Economy.

The startling revolutions of recent years have had as great an impact on Northeast Asia as on Eastern Europe. Gorbachev's cautious withdrawal of support for North Korea and his establishment of ties with South Korea have created a need for a new research agenda exploring how communism and capitalism in Asia can be successfully restructured or redirected in a new world order. Focused on systemic issues, this book is the first study to attempt a comprehensive analysis of social and economic development in modem Korea as a whole.As a homogeneous nation artificially divided by the competing ideologies of the Cold War, Korea provides a unique laboratory for comparing divergent development processes undertaken by conflicting social systems. Current theories of Third World development have advocated either capitalist models of modernization or have called for the establishment of self-reliant socialist economies cut off from the world capitalist system.While capitalist South Korea has consistently outperformed Communist North Korea since the mid-1970s, development has not yet brought a fully evolved West-em-style democracy in its wake. "Self-reliant" North Korea achieved successful growth during its first fifteen years, but has since been faced with numerous structural limitations on sustained development, including severe restrictions on political freedom and civil liberties.In the author's view, the experience of the two Koreas suggests that the solution to underdevelopment must be based on the realization that exclusionary theories need modification in the light of special historical and sociological circumstances peculiar to individual nations. This volume offers a valuable interpretation of modem Korean history and constitutes an important contribution to the comparative study of capitalism and communism in practice. It will be of particular interest to specialists in international relations and comparative political systems.

First published in 1987, this book comprises a critical evaluation of Marxist, Gramscian and pluralist theories of social development; the application of these theories, chiefly to Third World countries: hence consideration of the problems of ‘specificity’, general theory and social change. This is followed by an assessment of the stages of economic development in relation to state power and politics; and the role of the ‘external’: the impact of the world market economy and the security imperative. The book is not a discussion of theory, but of theory-in-practice. Above all, it represents a continuing debate between Marxism and pluralism – on the themes of accumulation, power, legitimacy – resulting in convergence.

With the world’s attention fixed on the travails of leading global economies due to a still unfolding financial crisis of gigantic proportions, there has been a studied silence on the fate of the third world as the malaise increasingly impacts it. This silence is particularly disturbing because questions of potential pitfalls in the neoliberal policy package, which the third world (unlike Western Europe and Japan) was largely forced to adopt, were never countenanced. as One third world state after another discovered that international institutions were in effect hostile to their governments if they chose alternative developmental models or otherwise resisted the neoliberal triage of liberalization, privatization and deregulation. This collection is a tour de force, effectively countering not only the neoliberal ideology of development as a whole but the marginalizing within today’s mainstream crisis discourse of any discussion of the monstrous misallocation of global resources wrought by the so-called “Washington Consensus” and the suffering and destruction it has wreaked on third world peoples and economies. This edited volume is intended as both a textbook for introductory classes in global development or area studies and as a conduit for advanced students, policymakers, NGO activists and an educated readership to gain knowledge about the socio-economic conditions existing across much of the world we live in, and the policies that brought them about. The specially commissioned and peer reviewed chapters are written by experts in the fields of economics, politics, sociology and international studies. Chapter authors hail from around the world including: Brazil, Mexico, Canada, United States, United Kingdom, South Africa, South Korea and Thailand. The countries/regions’ neoliberal experience and potential futures covered in this book are: Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, Mexico, Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam), South Africa, South Korea, Syria, Thailand and Venezuela.

An international set of eminent scholars examine the contemporary relevance and continuing contribution of Marx's work. This indispensable volume presents Marx's theories in a new light, both for specialists who might think they already know everything about Marx and for a new generation of readers who are approaching his work for the first time.

Seoul, as one of Asia’s rising global cities, has been a place where enormous changes in politics, industry, and culture have taken place over the last five decades. This book explores the new urbanism in Seoul from the perspective of global political economy, focusing on the contexts in which the city has witnessed the transformation of its population structure, such as the rise of the global urban middle class and the city’s increased nodal function in commodity chains. The burgeoning signs of Seoul’s status as a global city are discussed in terms of transnational tourism and the frequency of study abroad, the immigrant community, and cross-border cultural flows. Examining the labour structures within the city, economic growth policy, the role of advanced information technology, and neoliberal urban development, the authors also examine the local response in the city to its emerging status. A study of the development of the Korean capital and its deep embeddedness in the world economy, Seoul, Korea’s Global City will appeal to scholars of sociology, geography and economics with interests in political economy, urban studies and Asian studies.

This book provides an analysis of capitalism’s world historic phases of development, a critique of the globalization literature and a re-examination of Marxian debates over the rise of capitalism.