Kim Myung-soo: Cultural Origins of Korea's Economic Development

This book attempts to raise anew and respond to the age-old question of the roles of the state and culture in the process of economic development through a historical institutionalist perspective. To this end, the analysis focuses first on identifying the nature of the historically constructed hybrid culture in Korean society and understanding the role of the state as an actor embedded in this cultural foundation—either bound by it or utilizing it as a strategic resource. Korea's historically constructed hybrid culture functioned as an apparatus effectively carrying out the catch-up growth promoted by the military government in the 1960s, playing a role in the formation and sustainment of the developmental state. The Korean developmental state was an institutional innovation made possible by the establishment of a "mutually reinforcing feedback" pathway through the dynamic interaction between state autonomy and state performance capabilities during the catch-up growth process. Subsequently, catch-up growth, pursued by the Korean developmental state "by any means necessary," was sustained as it was justified by "results-oriented purposive rationalism," a key component of Korean hybrid culture. Thus, the establishment of the developmental state became "the critical juncture" in Korea's economic development. However, the developmental state as an institution is not permanent and possesses the nature of being created only to disappear. Korea's developmental state also eventually collapsed as it transformed into a path of "mutual weakening feedback," in which state autonomy declined and state performance capabilities were subsequently weakened as a result of state-led rapid growth.

Korean title: 한국 경제발전의 문화적 기원

Korean author: 김명수

Korean publisher: 집문당

ISBN-13: 9788930318020