Crisis In South Korea Research Articles

The political origins of South Korea's economic crisis: Is democratization to blame?

Different explanations have been presented regarding the recent economic crisis in South Korea. After critically evaluating these explanations, the article modifies and refines the dominant model, the mea culpa paradigm, to develop a political, interactive and integrative explanation of the crisis. The economic breakdown during the Kim Young Sam regime in Korea (1993–98) was mainly due to the Kim government's failure to carry out its well‐intended economic reforms, particularly chaebol reforms. The reasons for the failure of the economic reforms, in turn, consist of a set of political factors, including President Kim's distinctive leadership style encapsulated by ‘decretistic populism’, the chaebôl's effective cultural strategies of agenda denial and an anti‐reform campaign by conservative social forces. In this respect, the economic crisis in Korea is also a political crisis. The article refutes a popular interpretation within Korea that blames democracy for the economic crisis, demonstrating that there is at best a very tenuous relationship between the democratization in the country since 1987 and the economic crisis. To overcome the crisis, the current Kim Dae Jung government in Korea should avoid decretistic populism, forge and maintain a constructive alliance with civil society groups and develop a solid coalition for economic reform.

Financial Crisis in South Korea: Failure of the Government-Led Development Paradigm

Financial Crisis in South Korea: Failure of the Government-Led Development Paradigm

Financial Crisis in South Korea: Failure of the Government-Led Development Paradigm

Financial Crisis in South Korea: Failure of the Government-Led Development Paradigm

The failure of the weak state in economic liberalization: liberalization, democratization and the financial crisis in South Korea

The transformation of a state-governed development economy into a liberal one requires the state's strong capacity to manage the adjustment process. In East Asian countries, financial crises erupted in the course of their structural adjustment for economic liberalization. States of the region forfeited the capacity to oversee the market in consequence of liberal reform. The erosion of a state's capacity to govern the market involved the weakening of its capacity to adjust to changing economic milieu and to coordinate conflicts between social components. If the state is to fulfil liberalization successfully, it has to retain a regulatory system to oversee capital impairing the foundation of fair market competition. The South Korean case supports this argument. The reason the liberalization attempt failed under the Kim goverment is because the state failed to maintain a capacity to oversee capital in the course of liberalization. Being more subject to social pressures, the state was unable to keep autonomy vis-a-vis capital in policy decision making, as the liberalization process was politicized. In the case of South Korea, the failure of economic liberalization was due to its poor implementation by a weakened state.

Defense Spending and Economic Growth in South Korea: The Indirect Link

Due to the lingering food crisis, speculations about the collapse of the North Korean regime have intensified in recent years. The collapse of the North Korean regime is expected to generate a tremendous economic burden on the South Korean economy. Moreover, the current economic crisis in South Korea requires a tight fiscal policy. Thus, on the basis of the peace dividend argument, some suggest that South Korea should reduce its military expenditures to prepare for the upcoming extra economic burden. For this reason, the economic effects of defense spending on growth in South Korea are a significant concern for policymakers as well as scholars. I examined the economic effects of defense spending on growth in terms of time and magnitude by investigating the direct effects as well as the indirect impacts (via investment and export) of military spending on economic growth. A three-equation econometric model was specified and empirically tested using South Korean data for 1954-95. The findings of this study reveal that the overall economic effects of defense spending on growth are negative although they seem to be indirect or delayed.

An Analysis of the Asian Crisis by a Capital-Linked Multicountry Model

Where the causes of the Asian financial crisis are concerned , we believe that a structural accumulation of trade deficits is a more fundamental cause than a failure of financial controls. Among Asian countries that are targets of international arbitrage, chronic trade deficits have led to a shortage of foreign currency reserves, making it impossible for such countries to prop up their own currency through buying . Thus, forecasting future movements in these structural trade deficits has relevance to forecasting the course of the currently depressed exchange rates. Predicted results produced by the Kyoto University Pacific Rim Econometric Model maintained by the author reveal an overall stabilization and moderate improvement in the real exchange rates of the Asian currencies. Using the same model, we investigated the effects of capital flight on individual Asian countries, based on a theory that a rise in productivity in the U.S. attracts capital, which has a negative effect on several other countries. Results indicated that the ASEAN countries' crisis will not continue in the long run, and that the crisis in South Korea should be seen as the origin of an overall decline in the rate of growth.

Whose Honour, Whose Humiliation: Women, Men and the Economic Crisis in South Korea

Whose Honour, Whose Humiliation: Women, Men and the Economic Crisis in South Korea

Democratization and Its Discontents: Origins of the Present Crisis in South Korea

Double-digit growth in GNP and the recent democratization have drawn attention to South Korea as the model of third world development. Yet even as Goldstar TVs in the living rooms and Hyundai cars in the driveways of suburban homes amply confirm Korean economic might, these same Goldstar TVs bring dramatic images of students clashing with riot police and of striking Hyundai workers.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Appeal in connection with a demonstration on account of the crisis in South Korea

Appeal in connection with a demonstration on account of the crisis in South Korea