Abstract
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Since liberation, the Korean economy has undergone a remarkable structural transformation, tantamount to a revolution. In the past, due to national division and the Korean War, Korea could not escape being
an underdeveloped and peripherial country. However, as a latecomer,
Korea successfully accomplished a condensed industrialization within a
short span of time, followed by democratization. Now, social and eco-nomic
advancement has been set as a policy goal. This dual revolution
bears significance not only for modern Korean history but for world
economic history during the post-war era.
However, it is misleading to focus only on the positive aspects of
Korean development. A balanced and reflexive viewpoint encompassing
both the bright and dark sides of Korean development is required. This
paper pays attention to the specific characteristics of Korean develop-ment
as a form of cold war, anticommunist capitalism, and then
emphasizes the importance of power relations, interests, and events. By
doing so, this paper aims to transcend linear evolutionism as well as
the free market-state dichotomy, and offers a coherent analysis of both the successes and structural contradictions inherent to Korean develop-ment following liberation.
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| Keywords:
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colonial modernization, social market economy, cold war
anticommunist capitalism, 1953 regime, developmental state, economic liberalization, the 1997 financial crisis, neoliberal restructuring, polarization, Korea-U.S. FTA
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| About the author(s)
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Lee Byeong Cheon (Yi, Byeong-cheon) is a professor in the Department of Economics and International Trade at Kangwon National University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Seoul National University. He is also director of the Institute of Participatory Society and editor-in-chief of the journal Simin-gwa segye (Citizen and World). His publications include Developmental Dictatorship and the Park Chung-Hee Era: The Shaping of Modernity in the Republic of Korea (2005). E-mail: LBCH@kangwon.ac.kr.
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