The Korean Developmental State The Korean Developmental State is a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of processes of state and economic restructuring in South Korea since the 1997 crisis. The book distinguishes itself from previous studies by consistently arguing that structural changes in the global political economy have played a crucial role in reshaping the Korean state’s own economic project. More precisely, Iain Pirie seeks to demonstrate how the Korean state increas- ingly adopted neo-liberal policies from the 1980s onwards as a rational response to the evolution of global economic structures; an evolution which has been driven by the continuous attempts of major global firms and leading capitalist states to overcome the chronic profitability problems that have dogged the core capitalist area since the late 1960s. The radical restructuring programme the Korean state initiated after the 1997 crisis must be understood as a logical con- clusion to these earlier, more incremental, processes of reform it initiated almost two decades earlier. This book seeks to establish the neo-liberal character of the Korean state through a close analysis of key institutional and policy reforms, and serious engagement with more theoretical debates concerning the nature of the neo-liberal state itself. The Korean Developmental State offers a new perspective on the economic experience of Korea as a development model, one that emphasises global trends and contradictions for Korea’s economic crisis and resulting transformation, and as such will be of significant interest to scholars of Korean studies and the Asian economy. Iain Pirie is an assistant professor at the University of Warwick. His research examines how the changing dictates of international competitiveness have shaped state restructuring processes since the 1970s. Routledge studies in the growth economies of Asia 1 The Changing Capital Markets 8 Economic Development in of East Asia Twentieth-Century East Asia Edited by Ky Cao The international context Edited by Aiko Ikeo 2 Financial Reform in China Edited by On Kit Tam 9 The Politics of Economic Development in Indonesia 3 Women and Industrialization in Contending perspectives Asia Edited by Ian Chalmers and Edited by Susan Horton Vedi R. Hadiz 4 Japan’s Trade Policy 10 Studies in the Economic History Action or reaction? of the Pacific Rim Yumiko Mikanagi Edited by Sally M. Miller, A.J.H. Latham and 5 The Japanese Election System Dennis O. Flynn Three analytical perspectives Junichiro Wada 11 Workers and the State in New Order Indonesia 6 The Economics of the Vedi R. 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Folk 59 Risk Management and Innovation in Japan, Britain 51 Exchange Rate Regimes in East and the USA Asia Edited by Ruth Taplin Edited by Gordon de Brouwer and Masahiro Kawai 60 Japan’s Development Aid to China 52 Financial Governance in East The long-running foreign policy of Asia engagement Policy dialogue, surveillance and Tsukasa Takamine cooperation Edited by Gordon de Brouwer and 61 Chinese Capitalism and the Yunjong Wang Modernist Vision Satyananda J. Gabriel 53 Designing Financial Systems in East Asia and Japan 62 Japanese Telecommunications Edited by Joseph P.H. Fan, Edited by Ruth Taplin and Masaharu Hanazaki and Masako Wakui Juro Teranishi 63 East Asia, Globalization and the 54 State Competence and New Economy Economic Growth in Japan F. Gerard Adams Yoshiro Miwa 64 China as a World Factory 69 The Rise of the Corporate Edited by Kevin Honglin Zhang Economy in Southeast Asia Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown 65 China’s State Owned Enterprise Reforms 70 The Singapore Economy An industrial and CEO approach An econometric perspective Juan Antonio Fernandez and Tilak Abeyshinge and Leila Fernandez-Stembridge Keen Meng Choy 66 China and India 71 A Basket Currency for Asia A tale of two economies Edited by Takatoshi Ito Dilip K. Das 72 Private Enterprises and China’s 67 Innovation and Business Economic Development Partnering in Japan, Europe Edited by Shuanglin Lin and and the United States Xiaodong Zhu Edited by Ruth Taplin 73 The Korean Developmental 68 Asian Informal Workers State Global risks local protection From dirigisme to neo-liberalism Santosh Mehrotra and Iain Pirie Mario Biggeri The Korean Developmental State From dirigisme to neo-liberalism Iain Pirie First published 2008 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2008 Iain Pirie All rights reserved. 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