Tradition as a Bridge between Political Economy and Sociology: In Search of the Distinctiveness of South Korea’s Modernization

This paper seeks to address how one might interpret the unique social and institutional outcomes that followed South Korea’s late industrialization. It argues that, both in general discussions of modernization and those specific to South Korea, the topic has often been treated ambiguously, relying on abstraction and lacking in concrete detail. The primary cause of this lack of specificity, the paper suggests, is the significant divide between the political economy and sociology perspectives on late industrialization. Accordingly, this work aims to clarify the origins, rationale, and effects of this long-overlooked gap, proposes a novel approach to bridging it, and uses South Korea’s late industrialization to illustrate how modernity can be examined in tangible terms. To this end, the paper begins by exploring the background of the divide between political economy and sociology in studies of late industrialization, introduces a conceptual framework for analyzing the distinctive social and institutional outcomes of late industrialization, and finally offers several concrete examples of the unique social and institutional consequences that have arisen in South Korea.