Big Business, Strong State: Collusion and Conflict in South Korean Development, 1960-1990 (Korean Studies)

Rating:
Summary: An excellent analysis of the chaebol growth in Korea
Review: Many studies of business growth in Asia tend to overemphasize only the state's role in producing the growth. Especially, in the case of South Korea, the big business groups called chaebol often have been generalized as something like the semi-state business supported by the government. However, it's true that this view has some serious weaknesses. Kim's book guides readers to consider the more COMPLICATED and DYNAMIC processes of the relationship between these two actors beyond oversimplification: state and chaebol, and the author shows that the chaebol's growth in Korea had not been guaranteed without risk by the state. By using various measures, some chaebol groups had to try to escape the strong state's discipline. And the state also had to try to keep itself free from chaebol's dominance. Taht is, this book reveals even the power struggle between the two major players in the Korea's fast industrialization. This book has several merits: using the interviews with the people who are or were in the main positions of decision-making in the course of industrialization; suggesting some important theoretical implication in explaining the state's and businesses' roles in East Asian economic growth and so on.