The Origins of Faulted Korean Statism

The financial collapse of 1997 provokes serious reflection upon Korea’s development experience, a juncture as pivotal as that of Park Chung Hee’s seizure of power in 1961. This article aims to provide a critique of the Korean model by examining the roots of its dirigisme-the system of state-led development-which is fraught with a contradictory procession of spectacular successes and cataclysmic crises. Korea’s undemocratic, highly centralized and personalized dirigisme resulted in politicization and de-professionalization of bureaucracies and collusion among state power holders, bureaucrats, and the nation’s chaebol. The analysis presented here reflects the situation in Korea, but it may be applicable to other Asian countries with dirigiste backgrounds.