South Koreas Research Articles

Dependence, Distorted Development, and Fertility Trends in Noncore Nations: A Structural Analysis of Cross-National Data

To evaluate the hypothesis that dependence on developed nations distorts demographic development in less developed countries (LDCs) a researcher used panel regression analysis to study variables from 62 nations. Multinational corporate penetration an estimate of the shares of both a nations capital and its labor that are controlled by developed country based transnational corporations was used as a measure of the level of dependence. The analysis demonstrated that school enrollment was highly correlated with level of development social insurance program history and both family planning effort (FPE) measures. In addition countries that underwent the most economic growth the most concerted FPEs etc. had the most rapid decline in fertility rates. Conversely those with high levels of multinational corporate penetration/dependency experienced either an increase in fertility or a slow decline. For example South Koreas 1965 CBR was 36 below the population mean of 45. In 1984 the CBR dropped to 20 even further below the population mean of 39 a dramatic absolute and relative fertility decline. South Korea also had the highest rate of economic growth and its increase in family planning program effort was dramatic: from no measurable effect in 1972 to the nation with the highest FPE score in 1982. In addition the level of multinational penetration was modest. In conclusion this research supports the view that intranational economic phenomena such as rate of economic growth and concerted FPEs contribute significantly to fertility decline. On the other hand multinational corporate penetration distorts development and impedes fertility reduction.

Egalitarian peasant farming and rural development: The case of South Korea

The South Korean development experience is examined from the perspective of the rural sector. Available data appear to indicate that the performance of the rural sector has been exceptional in comparison to the rest of the developing world. Output and productivity growth have been steady and there has been no trend of increasing inequality or landlessness as has been the situation in other developing countries. This performance has occurred from a base of a thorough land reform between 1945 and 1973. The resultant agrarian structure - relatively egalitarian and homogenous - has been a primary factor in explaining the widely diffused growth in the rural economy. The effort is made to describe the primary characteristics of South Koreas agricultural system to evaluate its performance in terms of growth distribution and accumulation and to analyze the factors which explain the performance. On the basis of the Korean experience it is possible to draw some general albeit weak conclusions. A thorough-going land reform brings positive benefits in terms of both distribution and growth. Land reform in Korea resulted in a swift alleviation of absolute rural poverty and created the preconditions for widely diffused growth in a rural economy. The land reform also demonstrated that egalitarian small-scale peasant production is a viable alternative to the growth following growing concentration in land ownership within a market economy. It does need to be remembered that within the Korean agricultural system disequalizing tendencies were strong even in the context of unusually favorable circumstances and that strong countervailing measures were required on an ongoing basis.