How did a country with a dearth of natural resources, a sprawling population congested in a limited arable land transform itself to a modern industrial state within a generation? How could these have been achieved given the lingering geopolitical threats to its very survival as a state, as evidenced by the Korean War and the internecine aggressive posturing of its neighbor from the north? This book looks at strategies, institutional arrangement, role of entrepreneurs and workers in this odyssey, and on how those factors have worked together through effective leadership to transform South Korea’s economic fortunes.

This volume explores South Korea's successful transition from an underdeveloped, authoritarian country to a modern industrialized democracy. South Korea's experience of foreign aid gives a unique perspective on how to use foreign aid for economic development as well as how to build a strong partnership between developed and developing countries.

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.

Korea faces two challenges in the twenty-first century: unification and globalization. Both entail problems of economic, political and cultural integration. In the past, Koreans successfully 'unified' in various forms, and 'globalized' in many ways. This book is a study of the theme of globalization, addressing various aspects of Korea's integration into the global community from a social scientific or humanistic perspective. This investigation begins with a focus on contemporary South and North Korea: the 'globalized' southern daily life, South Korean labour as a global player, the southern development state, and the cultural division that poses the greatest threat to reunification. Moving outwards in concentric circles, chapters address Korea's connections with its region and Koreans' contributions to the wider world. Relations with Japan, Korea's most difficult bi-lateral relationship, are surveyed to identify both patterns and images. The thirteenth century Tripitaka Koreana is the most complete collection of Buddhist scripture in Chinese and its recent digitization points towards a renaissance of this world religion. South Korea's pursuit of a Nobel Prize in Literature is put in perspective when one considers Korean contribution to the pre-modern Sinitic literary world. South Korea may owe its existence to the United Nations, but since entering the UN in 1991, it has taken to heart the altruistic urge of global peacekeeping.

This book analyzes, from a historical comparative perspective, the Korean economic development model, the extent to which it has changed from its classical model, and what constitutes its changes and continuity. Unlike studies claims the dissolution of Korean developmentalism, the book holds that the Korean state maintains its characteristics of state-led capitalism despite significant changes in policies and instruments rather than converge toward an AngloSaxon-style free market system. It emphasizes that the continuity of state-led capitalism is compatible with institutional change. Some institutionalists insist that the continuity of Korean developmentalism is based on path dependency. In contrast, this book argues that Korean capitalism could sustain its state developmentalism by changes in policies and instruments to improve national industrial competitiveness in the changed context of international competition. This book will be of interest to East Asian scholars, comparative economists, and those curious about the future of the Korean peninsula.

The 'trial of the century'

This book explores South Korea's phenomenal economic rise and the impact that this has had on the country's foreign policy.

South Korea has experienced new challenges both internally and externally with respect to its foreign policies. Internally, democratization has changed political terrain for domestic and international politics. Democratization and the information revolution have reinvigorated civic life and citizens have become active in expressing very divergent and often polarized views on foreign policies. Democratization also promotes South Korean nationalism. Rising nationalist sentiments make it difficult for the U.S. to effectively handle regional security-related issues such as the North Korean nuclear program, balancing against China, and dealing with the potential Sino-Japanese conflict. Externally, globalization has brought significant changes to South Korea’s foreign policies. Economic dimension and issues rather than security-related issues become salient and important. For example, although security concerns are still dominant in Korean society, economic interests necessitate South Korea improve its relations with China and redefine its political position between the U.S. and China. Globalization has also promoted Korea’s national interests to reach out to other countries. The Korean government has tried to develop new economic partnerships with developing countries for the purpose of securing energy and natural resources and expanding its soft power. Economic globalization and democratization have brought about changes in South Korea that raise many interesting questions with respect to foreign policy. Has South Korea’s rise as an economic power and a democracy changed its relationship with neighboring powers? Does economic integration between South Korea and China reshape their relationship? How about its impact on U.S.-Korea relations? Are geopolitical and security-related concerns still the dominant factor in explaining South Korea’s foreign policies? Does economic integration between Korea and Japan help to reduce tensions or emotional animosities that derive from historical disputes? Has South Korea, as a growing economic power, sought to forge relations with other middle or small powers beyond the confines of its region? Overall, this book theoretically and empirically explores how democratization and economic globalization have changed domestic politics in South Korea and reshaped its foreign policies.

By tracing the evolution of South Korean state-led capitalism and comparing it with other economies, this book critiques prevalent theories including neoliberalism, the developmental state, and institutionalism, and proposes a theoretical alternative focusing on endogenous changes through elites' competition within and outside the state. Unlike the arguments of neoliberals, this volume asserts that the state can still play an active role in reconstituting the national economy through globalization. The Korean state successfully fosters economic growth by nurturing industrial commons through globalization, rather than by adopting a neoliberal free-market system. This volume exerts that the Korean economy has successfully grown over the past 50 years because it has moved toward a new version of state-led developmentalism. In order to better account for the evolution of state-led developmentalism, this book proposes changes by competition within, as well as outside, the state, in order to bring about changes in developmentalism and the ability to adjust to new contexts. Unlike prevalent accounts of developmental state theory, Changes by Competition argues that the state is neither unitary nor cohesive, but a locus of competition.