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Chinese Local Governments’ Economic Role in the Early 1980s and North Korean Local Governments’ Potentials and Limitations

  • The Journal of Northeast Asia Research
  • Abbr : NEA
  • 2023, 38(2), pp.109-138
  • DOI : 10.18013/jnar.2023.38.2.004
  • Publisher : The Institute for Northeast Asia Research
  • Research Area : Social Science > Political Science > International Politics > International Relations / Cooperation
  • Received : July 3, 2023
  • Accepted : August 17, 2023
  • Published : August 31, 2023

Kyungsoo Lee 1

1서울대학교 한국정치연구소

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study aims to investigate the economic role of North Korean local governments, drawing parallels to the local state corporatism and local entrepreneurial state in China, which facilitated rapid economic development during the early stages of reform. It examines and compares the extent and nature of institutionalized decentralization and the resulting incentive structures in China and North Korea and investigates the behavior of North Korean local governments following institutional changes. Like China, North Korea granted autonomous fiscal rights to local governments and allowed sub-national economic units to engage in market-based activities. As a result, local governments and bureaucrats became pivotal economic actors with their own vested interests. However, due to the lack of resources to develop their industrial base, North Korean local governments were compelled to collaborate with private actors, leading to an increase in marketization accompanied by organizational and individual corruption. Without endowing sufficient resources to local governments through further opening and reform, recent attempts to regulate local economic activities have limits given the existing incentive structure.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.