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From “Developmental State Model” to “Neo-Liberal Model”: A Critical Review on the Debate over Korean Development Model

Don Moon 1 Chung Jin-Young 1

1경희대학교

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ABSTRACT

This paper critically reviews debates over Korean development model, which attracts increasing attention in academia as well as policy circles. We classify various debates into three categories. The first debate is about the Korean model from mid-1960s to 80s called ‘East Asian developmental state,’ and there has been a consensus that the key characteristics of the model fit well with Korean experiences of state-centric economic developments, export-oriented industrialization strategies, etc. The second debate is about the properties of ‘post-developmental state,’ and this debate is directly related to how we understand the drastic changes of the Korean political, economic, social system after the 1997-98 East Asian Financial Crises. In spite of disagreements among scholars, it is fair to define the current political/economic/social system as a neoliberal system. As for the final debate, the future development model of Korea, we examine the three most representative development models. Among the neo-developmental state model, the corporatist social-democratic welfare state model, and the regulatory state model, we find the last one is the most realistic and politically viable option, given political, economic, social, and cultural constraints and conditions under which a future model should be operative.

Citation status

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

This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.