The Reconstruction of the Developmental Alliance in South Korea and Taiwan

• Published in: Critique internationale (Paris. 1998) 2014-01, Vol.2 (63), p.41-58
• Main Author: Chu, Yin-wah
• Format: Article
• Language: fre
• Subjects: Democratization; Enterprises; Korea; Markets; Public Policy; Reconstruction; South Korea; State Role; Taiwan
• ISSN: 1290-7839
• DOI: 10.3917/crii.063.0041

Drawing on documentary research and in-depth interviews with private and public information technology actors, this article examines the impact of globalization and democratization on the South Korean and Taiwanese developmental states. In order to examine today's developmental state, the changes in and continuities of 'hard' and 'soft' institutions as well as politico-structural factors must be studied alongside public policy tools. In the two cases examined here, it emerges that the governments and their administrative apparatuses have remained attached to maintaining a guiding role for the state in economic matters. As these states more or less formally (depending on the case) democratized and reorganized their institutions, public policies remained coherent. Yet the state shifted from financial to institutional support: in South Korea, this support continues to be concentrated in a small number of industrial sectors; in Taiwan, it has been divided, as in the past, among a more diverse array of sectors. In South Korea, strategic plans and telecommunication norms allow the state to assist the chaebol in achieving milestones, becoming leaders in certain markets, while R&D aid is dispensed to SMEs in order to redynamize the sector. In Taiwan, the R&D efforts of potentially rival companies are coordinated on the initiative of state employees and public sector researchers, allowing the companies to move up the global value chain. Adapted from the source document.