ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8168-4090
Keywords
South Korea, development, development theory, developmental state, development ethics, utilitarianism, human rights, labor, Park Chung Hee
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Research Article
Abstract
South Korea has long been looked to as a model of developmental success. Undoubtedly, South Korean society has experienced a remarkable expansion of wealth, social well-being, and technological capacity over the last half-century. The central turning point in this momentous transformation coincided with the authoritarian rule of Park Chung Hee (1961-1979). As such, scholars of political economy and development have paid close attention to the various facets of his regime to glean the primary causes underpinning South Korea’s developmental feats. The most significant of these efforts have emerged from works emphasizing the role of the South Korean developmental state. This paper critically explores the theoretical foundations of developmental state theory to consider intellectual architecture of the success narrative widely appended to the era. The analysis builds from a premise that, given its widespread use of political violence and surveillance, framing the Park regime as a success carries significant ethical undertones. As such, the paper centers the interplay of ethics and empirics in the theoretical engagement with this crucial site in both Korean and development history. As such, it demonstrates that developmental state theory’s reluctance to engage with these significant ethical questions systematically corresponds to distorted analytical and empirical representations of the case.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Hockmuth, Kevin
(2024)
"Marshaling a Triumph: The Park Chung Hee Era, Developmental State Theory, and the Meaning of Success in South Korea,"
Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis: Vol. 3:
Iss.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/emancipations/vol3/iss2/5
Included in
Asian Studies Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, International Relations Commons, Korean Studies Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Political Economy Commons
Submitted
December 25, 2023
Published
August 29, 2024