Capitalist maturity and South Korea's post-development conundrum

Abstract

South Korea's post World War II economic development trajectory is well known. From an impoverished warn-torn nation, the country has progressed on all fronts. However, the objective is to focus on the “post-development” question, namely, what does a country do after it becomes prosperous. To put it another way, what are some of the emergent challenges that successful development poses for Korea, and how might it tackle them. I use the concept of capitalist maturity to denote Korea's current state of prosperity and examine some of the economic, social, and political consequences. Some of these post-development conundrums I argue have resulted from the transformation of Korea's state–business development partnership to a business–state political partnership in the context of a democratizing Korea. This paper examines the challenges and some of the policy options to address them, including the rebalancing of the state–business relationship.