Abstract

South Korea is often portrayed as an authoritarian state that has directed the nation's social and economic development. So well does it fit models of a "strong state" and "developmental state" that there has been a tendency to overlook the importance of broader social forces—what may be termed the "public sphere"—in shaping the course of the nation's development. Yet a close examination of the formulation and implementation of educational policies during the early months of the military government in 1961 and the First Five-Year Development Plan in 1962-66 reveals that the South Korean state failed repeatedly to coordinate educational expansion with developmental needs as a result of opposition from a public eager to gain access to power, privilege, and prestige through higher education.

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