Abstract
South Korea is one of economic wonders of the late twentieth century. War-torn desolated and poverty-stricken country in the 1950s with a per capita income less then Haiti, Ethiopia, India or Yemen, achieved unprecedented economic development and legendary growth that brought her from one the most backward countries into an economic giant by the 1980s and later on one of the most advanced countries in the world in the 21st century. The process was characterized by rapid industrialization, phenomenal growth rates and incremental social transformation. The paradigm of Korean path was under scrutiny from politicians and academicians and many studies were devoted to this issue. The paper is briefly highlighting major schools of thoughts analyzing Korea´s model from different angles – developmental concept, new institutionalism, cultural school of values, historical trajectory theory and of international relations concept. The study does not have an ambition to go deeply into historical perspectives and developmental cycles of Korean economic success that are very well covered in a number of economic expertizes. Instead, the paper focuses on some selected aspects that, though sometimes forgotten to get a due attention, but substantially subscribed on the Korea´s industrialization successful story. The study includes considerations of the applicability of Korean model on other countries and brings also a brief insight into the modernization period that followed the path of democratization of the country after 1987.
Highlights
President Park Chung-hees authoritarian regime and his executive leadership was characterized by strong state intervention, government regulation, large conglomerate-centered industrial policies, strategic allocation of resources, growth-centered policies and export oriented industrialization while suppressing the peoples demands for freedom and democracy
If a new book of economic history of the period after World War II is to be written, South Korea economic achievements should feature, without doubt, on the first place. It is a miracle in the sense that the country was able to achieve in three decades such structural economic changes what other countries did in one century
South Korea is an important country in the community of nations and in our modern world – not just economically and culturally and politically
Summary
There are concepts stressing some factors over the others trying to extrapolate certain aspects as the most decisive in Koreas development process. Washington maintained security commitments to its Korea ally had been a guarantee for peaceful economic development of South Korea in the aftermath of Korean War and later on a crucial mean of preserving the global non-proliferation regime and an important instrument that South Korea was not seeking its own nuclear arsenal. This has had a major influence on South Korea by giving her an opportunity to focus fully on economic development without needs of bearing high financial burden of nuke and ballistic programs
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