Korean political economy, from one crisis to the other [Léconomie politique coréenne, d'une crise à l'autre]

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the evolution of Korean political economy since the Asian economic crisis of 1997 to the recent aftermath of the world crisis of 2008. Three governments during this period had to deal with the crisis, the first two from left wing political forces with liberalization policies and the third one from the right wing engaging in a new kind of developmental state tendencies in the wave of the second crisis. Korea has demonstrated her leadership role in several industrial sectors such as electronics, informatics and shipbuilding. Nevertheless, she has some long term weaknesses from the demographic and social perspectives. Finally, she is in a delicate period of foreign policy management from her traditional alliance relationship with the United States to that with the newly ascendant Chinese hegemony.