Urbanization and Urban Problems (review)

BOOK REVIEWS147 fall of two authoritarian governments in Korea since its liberation from Japanese rule may have been part of a broader learning process for the Korean people; definitely , education has played a critical role in that process. The modernization process is not a cheap or easy one, and education may not be an effective means by which to impose a government's will upon the people. Youngil Lim University of Hawaii NOTES 1 . This passage appears in the foreword of each of the volumes under review. 2.Paul W. Kuznets, Economic Growth and Structure in the Republic of Korea (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1977), pp. 94-99. 3.See Chuk Kyo Kim, "Exports and Productivity Trends of the Korean Manufacturing Industries," Trade and Development in Korea, ed. Wontack Hong and Anne O. Krueger (Seoul: Korea Development Institute, 1975), pp. 139 ff. Urbanization and Urban Problems. By Edwin S. Mills and Byung-Nak Song. Harvard East Asian monograph, no. 88. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1979. xix, 310 pp. Bibliography, index. $15.00. Urbanization and Urban Problems is one of a series of studies on the economic and social modernization of South Korea carried out jointly by the Harvard Institute of International Development and the Korea Development Institute. As its title aptly states, this volume deals with the urbanization and urban problems accompanying the recent rapid industrialization of Korea. Mills and Song cover various aspects of urbanization and its problems, and present a highly informative account of the issues involved in language comprehensible to the intelligent layman. The basic argument that emerges after the facts and figures have been digested is a simple and familiar one: urbanization necessarily accompanies industrialization ; the problems of urbanization, such as housing shortages, traffic congestion, and the deterioration of environmental quality, are caused by industrialization ; economic growth provides the means for solving these problems; and urbanization has been successful in Korea basically because the government did not impose controls on urban growth. It is hard to argue with this straightforward message. Though one might always point to countries like New Zealand and argue that economic growth and industrialization are not necessarily the same thing, one also knows that Korea could never have become another New Zealand. Given Korea's high population density and meager natural resources, it probably had no alternatives to industrialization and urbanization. Thus, although one may sympathize with the ordi- 148LEE nary residents of Seoul as they commute in buses as crowded as the proverbial can of sardines and breathe highly polluted air, one must also bear in mind the material benefits that most Koreans have derived from industrialization. Indeed, the Korean story is a success story by any standards applicable to countries in the process of rapid industrialization. The book is also a success in the sense that it provides the reader with a reasonably clear view of the process as well as the benefits and costs of Korea's urbanization. Though Urbanization is quite comprehensive in its coverage, there are a few additional topics that should have been included in a study of this sort. One would like to learn about government policies on population and their effects on urbanization. One would also like to learn if there is any difference between urban and rural birth rates, or if urbanization has had any effect on the birth rate. Also, Mills and Song seem to skirt the issue of overurbanization. Obviously this is an ambiguous concept that does not lend itself to precise definition. Thus, instead of dealing with the issue of overurbanization, the authors simply compare the urbanization of Korea with that of some other countries and conclude that Korea is "somewhat more urbanized than most countries at its stage of development " and that Korea is "only slightly more primate than the average country." Though such comparisons between countries are informative, one is not sure what to make of the information they provide. Is Korea following some immutable law of urbanization? Has Korea's urbanization been successful because it is more or less similar to urbanization in the average country? One would like to learn not only how Korean urbanization compares with that in other countries, but also how...