Learning from the South Korean Developmental Success ─ Effective Developmental Cooperation and Synergistic Institutions and Policies

This edited volume presents lessons for development in the 21st century through an analysis of South Korea's development experience. The question of how the collaboration between state and society has contributed to capability enhancement is examined. The papers of the volume aim to understand the complementarity between economic and social policies. Looking beyond the conventional analytical scope of South Korean developmental state, they focus on the institutional mechanisms enabling the state and society to establish complementary policies, the actors involved and the consequences of the choices in the policy areas of aid, industrial, labour market, fiscal and monetary policies, social policy, rural development, environment, and gender to identify relevant lessons for developing countries in the 21st century.

This volume considers the institutions and policies of South Korea between 1945 and 2000. Framing social policies as a set of policies to enhance individual and societal capability, this volume shows how a wide range of policies were formulated to complement each other in protective, reproductive, productive and redistributive spheres for economic and social development. In particular, it includes the periods of state-building prior to the rapid industrialisation of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s and the responses to Asian Economic Crisis in the 1990s, which identified the institutional foundations and legacies for Korea's successful development.

This book is indispensable reading for all interested in development economics, macroeconomics, institutional economics, political economy, migration studies, gender studies and international relations.

Thandika Mkandawire is Chair in African Development at LSE and Olof Palme Visiting Professor, Swedish Research Council. Earlier he was Director of UNRISD; and Executive Secretary of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa. He has published widely on problems of policy making, adjustment and democratization.

Ilcheong Yi is Research Coordinator at UNRISD. His research interests are issues related to the developmental state, social policy in developing countries and macro-level development strategies. His recent publications are mainly related to the welfare state and health policies in developing countries.