The State’s Role in Globalization: Korea’s Experience from a Comparative Perspective

Kyung Mi Kim and Hyeong-Ki Kwon
Additional contact information
Kyung Mi Kim: Korean Institute of Political Studies, Seoul National University
Hyeong-Ki Kwon: Seoul National University

Politics & Society, 2017, vol. 45, issue 4, 505-531

Abstract: By analyzing how Korea has upgraded its industrial capabilities in the course of corporate globalization, this article holds that some versions of developmental state work better in the globalization process. Globalizing national corporations, neoliberal optimism notwithstanding, does not necessarily result in upgrading domestic innovation capabilities. In the United States, free-market firms may benefit through offshoring, but they create holes in the industrial linkages or industrial commons at home, enfeebling US capability for innovation. By contrast, the Korean government successfully upgraded domestic firms’ innovation capabilities and reduced the possibility of deindustrialization in the course of globalization by moving from classical developmentalism to a new form of development based on inclusive and collaborative networks. Korea’s earlier classical developmentalism focused on mobilization of physical capital, funneling it exclusively to a few firms.

Keywords: globalization; Korea; developmental state; industrial commons; neoliberalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0032329217715614 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:polsoc:v:45:y:2017:i:4:p:505-531

DOI: 10.1177/0032329217715614

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Politics & Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().