The Political Economy Of South Korea

Because the author sees South Korean development as contingent on a variety of particular circumstances, he ranges widely to include not only the information typically gathered by sociologists and political economists, but also insights gained from examining popular tastes and values, poetry, fiction, and ethnography, showing how all of these aspects of South Korean life help elucidate his main themes.

Over the past three decades, South Korea has moved along a path of strong economic growth and political democratization, attracting worldwide attention and providing valuable lessons for other developing economies. Yet Korea still must grapple with many intractable problems fueled by its rapid industrialization and uneven growth, including unbalanced distribution of wealth, concentrated economic power, and adversarial relationships between management and labor. Within the context of these sweeping changes, this volume explores options for economic and social institutional reform in Korea. Drawing on models of economic development from Japan, the United States, and Europe, a distinguished group of Asian and Western scholars relates the experiences of previously industrialized economies to each facet of Koreas economic system, including national management; taxation and banking; land ownership and use; trade and industrial strategy; and relations among business ownership, management, and labor. In so doing, the contributors provide valuable insights and fresh proposals for a viable model of social and economic modernization. Throughout the volume, the contributors emphasize the importance of Koreas cultural heritage-not only in explaining the nations recent growth but also as a key element of its continued success. By providing an overview of the evolution and interaction of Korean economic, political, and sociocultural institutions, the contributors make clear how these structures mediate the movement between cultural values and economic progress.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. Theoretical reinterpretation of the small welfare state in South Korea; 3. The emergence of the small welfare state under the authoritarian developmental state (1961-1987); 4. Democratization and limited welfare state development under the conservative rule (1987-1997); 5. Economic crisis, power shift, and welfare politics under the Kim Dae Jung government (1997-2002); 6. Economic Unionism and the limits of the Korean welfare state under the Roh Moo Hyun government (2003-2007); 7. Wind of welfare and tax politics under the returned conservative rule; 8. Conclusion

"Mo and Weingast study three critical turning points in South Korea's remarkable transformation and offer a new view of how Korea was able to maintain pro-development policies with sustained growth by resolving repeated crises in favor of rebalancing and greater political and economic openness"--Provided by publisher.

"How do poor nations become rich, industrialized, and democratic? And what role does democracy play in this transition? To address these questions, Jongryn Mo and Barry R. Weingast study South Korea’s remarkable transformation since 1960. The authors concentrate on three critical turning points: Park Chung Hee’s creation of the development state beginning in the early 1960s, democratization in 1987, and the genesis of and reaction to the 1997 economic crisis. At each turning point, Korea took a significant step toward creating an open access social order.The dynamics of this transition hinge on the inclusion of a wide array of citizens, rather than just a narrow elite, in economic and political activities and organizations. The political economy systems that followed each of the first two turning points lacked balance in the degree of political and economic openness and did not last. The Korean experience, therefore, suggests that a society lacking balance cannot sustain development. Korean Political and Economic Development offers a new view of how Korea was able to maintain a pro-development state with sustained growth by resolving repeated crises in favor of rebalancing and greater political and economic openness."

This book looks at Korea's economic, social and spatial development processes from the early Modernisation period to the financial crisis of 1997. It focuses on the political and ideological control of the state during the developmental era, as well as the environmental problems of Korea, and examines how society and environment have been used as means to attain rapid accumulation. Providing an holistic approach to Korean development, this title allows a comprehensive view of Korea's economic miracle as well as its recent problems.