Making and Unmaking of a Developmental State - Institutional innovation and change of the Korean state

Abstract

How can we understand the emergence of the ‘able’ developmental state in Korea and its transformation to the ‘less capable’ types of the state, such as predatory and Sisyphean? To what extent and in what specific way does the culture matter in this dynamic process of the state building and change? From the historical institutional perspective, we clarified the critical juncture of the emergence of the developmental state as an institutional innovation and its transformation to the predatory and Sisyphean as symptoms of post-developmental state. We also identified the ways in which cultural hybridity work in setting the economic growth path as well as in sustaining the path-dependency that now undercut the strength of the state. Finally, we speculated the 3 logical possibilities that the current Korean state would likely to have.