Korea’s Economic Development from a Dynamic Perspective and Marginal Response : Focusing on Economic Development in the Park Chung-Hee Era

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-44
Author(s):  
Jae Wook An ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Park Chung Hee ◽  
Dynamic Perspective

South Korea during the Park Chung Hee Era: Explaining Korea’s Developmental Decades

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-192
Author(s):  
Kurtuluş Gemici
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Park Chung Hee ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

Abstract Despite the voluminous literature on South Korea’s rapid economic development and social transformation in the 1960s and 1970s, the literature in English on Park Chung Hee — the political figure who indelibly marked this era — is still lacking. Furthermore, the existing studies approach the subject of Korea’s fateful decades from general theoretical perspectives, such as the developmental state. This approach inevitably flattens out historical particularity in the process. A recent edited volume, The Park Chung Hee Era: The Transformation of South Korea, fills these gaps by bringing political history back into the study of Korean modernization. The goal of this review essay is a critical evaluation of this volume’s contribution to scholarship on South Korea. It is posited that The Park Chung Hee Era throws light on topics such as Park’s leadership that have been hitherto neglected in the analysis of arguably the most consequential decades in the history of South Korea. However, while the edited volume mounts an effective criticism of existing perspectives on Korea’s developmental decades under Park Chung Hee’s rule, it is less successful in offering a consistent framework to analyze different causal factors shaping the Korean trajectory of economic development.

South Korea’s Economic Development, 1948–1996

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Seth
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The State ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Military Government ◽  
State Planning ◽  
Park Chung Hee ◽  
The Military ◽  
Capital Intensive

At its independence in 1948, South Korea was an impoverished, predominately agricultural state, and most of the industry and electrical power was in North Korea. It faced a devastating war from 1950 to 1953, and an unpromising and slow recovery in the years that followed. Then, from 1961 to 1996, South Korea underwent a period of rapid economic development, during which it was transformed into a prosperous, industrial society. During these years, its economic growth rates were among the highest in the world. Under the military government of Park Chung Hee (Pak Chǒng-hǔi), which came to power in 1961, the state gave priority to economic development, focusing on a combination of state planning and private entrepreneurship. Possessing few natural resources, it depended on a low wage, educated, and disciplined labor force to produce goods for exports. As wages rose, economic development shifted from labor to capital-intensive industries. Focusing initially on textiles and footwear, South Korean manufacturing moved into steel, heavy equipment, ships, and petrochemicals in the 1970s, and electronics and automobiles in the 1980s. Two major reforms under the administration of Syngman Rhee (Yi Sǔng-man, 1948–1961) helped prepare the way: land reform and educational development. However, it was the commitment to rapid industrialization by the military governments of Park Chung Hee and his successor, Chun Doo Hwan (Chǒn Tu-hwan), that brought about the takeoff. Industrialization was characterized by a close pattern of cooperation between the state and large family-owned conglomerates known as chaebǒls. This close relationship continued after the transition to democracy, in the late 1980s and 1990s, but after 1987, labor emerged as a major political force, and rising wages gave further impetus to the development of more capital-intensive industry. In 1996, South Korea joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, being internationally recognized as a “developed state.” Although living standards still lagged behind those of North America, Western Europe, and Japan, the gap was significantly narrowed. After 1996, its economic development slowed but was still high enough to achieve a per capita income comparable to the countries of Western Europe and to shift from a borrower of to an innovator in technology.

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