The State and Industry in South Korea - The Limits of the Authoritarian State (Hardcover)

The economic success of East Asia is often attributed to the relationship between state and business. This text presents a more balanced view of Korea's "industrial miracle". It examines the limits of a strong authoritarian state as a vehicle for intervening in the market or for sponsoring liberal reform, focusing on how state-controlled industrial adjustment in Korea has succeeded and failed. The work examines the unsuccessful state intervention in the heavy industry and chemical sectors, which led to the breakdown of the state-business governing coalition. It contrasts this with the successful transformation of these same industries in the 1970s. The unsuccessful attempts at liberalization during the mid-1980s led to the failure of many enterprises. Further insights into these limitations are provided by a comparison with state-industry relations in Japan and France.