The Crisis of Crisis Management: Social Reproduction and the Politics of the Developmental State

Abstract

Jamie Doucette’s The Postdevelopmental State: Dilemmas of Economic Democratization in Contemporary South Korea is an outstanding account of democratic politics and the “post-development state” in South Korea. It takes up several issues that have broader relevance to those working on issues of capitalist and democratic crisis, including inequality, the failure of transformative progressive projects, and a deepening political crisis. The review essay argues that the crisis of the post-developmental state is the contradiction between capital accumulation and social reproduction that leads to growing unrest and an emerging form of authoritarian statism. This is at the heart of the democratic crisis in Korea.