Introduction to South Korean Political Economy

South Korea’s successful political-economic development, from one of the poorest countries to one of the most advanced democracies, has attracted international attention from both policy-makers and political economists. Korea attracts international attention not just for its rapid and successful political-economic development, but more importantly, for the way Korea has successfully developed its political economic system. Korean development has sparked significant theoretical debates among political economists. Some scholars mention its liberalization and free market system for its economic success, while others refer to the state’s leading roles in developing Korean political economy. This academic debate evolves through Korea’s real development. After the 1997 Asian financial crisis, neoliberalism prevails over the developmental state for the causes of Korea’s successful economic development. Recently, against the backdrop of the U.S.-China rivalry, in which even advanced economies, including the U.S. and Germany, adopt statist industrial policies, proponents of statist coordination development gain ascendancy, pointing out Korea’s statist development method. How can we understand the Korean model’s political-economic development? What are the particular features of Korean development, compared with other countries’ methods of development? Can the statist coordination model, represented by Korea, be effective even in a digitalized and globalized world? To answer these questions, the Korean political economy team of SNU Contemporary Korean Studies explores the evolution of Korean political economy from comparative and historical perspectives. Our project explores what the Korean model of political economic evolution means in the context of theoretical debate on political-economic development, as seen in Haggard’s and Lee’s works. Then, we empirically compare Korea not only to the Western models, but more importantly to other East-Asian countries including Japan and Taiwan, as seen in Kim and Kwon’s chapter and Yin-wah Chu’s chapter. We examine the recent performance of Korean political economy in terms of technology strategies at the firm level (see Song’s chapter) and Korean chaebols’ transformation and adaptation (Chang’s chapter). We also historically trace the evolution of Korean political, social and economic system (Ha’s chapter). Finally, we explore lessons embedded in South Korea’s experience for both developed and developing countries (see Thurbon’s chapter).