The Political Economy of Brazilian (Latin American) and Korean (East Asian) Comparative Development: Moving beyond Nation-centred Approaches

Abstract

The article argues that in order to grasp fully Brazilian and Korean post-WWII developmental and growth experiences, it is first necessary to account for global-economy dynamics and the transformations in the International Division of Labour. These, together with local factors that particularly affect the objective conditions for the valorisation of capital in different productive sectors, explain the specific characteristics of capitalism in both countries. The article claims that capital has accumulated in Brazil and Korea under two different specific forms. In Brazil, capital has accumulated while producing on an internationally small-scale for domestic markets and compensating the resultant high production costs through the appropriation of a portion of the abundant ground-rent. While before the mid-1960s capital accumulated in Korea under that same specific form (though ground-rent was complemented with a portion of small agrarian capital profits and foreign aid), it afterwards began to do so through the production of specific industrial goods for world markets using the relatively cheap and disciplined labour-force available in the country. World-scale technological changes associated with computerisation and electronics-based automation have changed Korea's ‘competitive advantages’ as they resulted in sharp advances in the codification of technical knowledge and, thus, in the reduction of the tacit know-how and skills necessary to perform several labour processes. Though resulting in strong growth, these processes have created new contradictions and challenges for Korea which it may be incapable of overcoming.