Developmental Transformation in South Korea: From State-Sponsored Growth to the Quest for Quality of Life

Book Description
South Korea's path toward a higher quality of life has been a dynamic process, Suh shows, shaped by historical contingencies, some immutable logic of capitalist development, and a dialectical relationship between the state and Korean civil society. Debunking the illusion of democracy and myths of self-regulating capitalism in South Korea, Suh shows that a growth machine is not a panacea for the development of human beings and their quality of life. If instead the raison d'etre of quality of life depended upon a robust civil society operating under fair rules of the game by the state, the developmental road would be more promising.


About the Author
MOON-GI SUH is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Social Development, Seoul National University where he is concentrating on the political economy of Newly Industrializing Countries (NICS). Dr. Suh has published articles on social-economic issues in various academic journals.


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Looks at South Korea as it faces a serious developmental crossroad as a result of both historical pressures and inherent contradictions of a commitment to capitalist development. Combines qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the structural relationships between explanatory variables such as socioeconomic and political factors, on the one hand, and distribution of income, wealth, and quality of life, on the other. Analysis falls broadly within the realm of rational- choice theory construction. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


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