Introduction

The term developmental state was originally used to explain the

globalisation happened in the East Asia after the World War II ended.
Woo-Cumings (1999) considers developmental state as a shorthand for
the seamless web of political, bureaucratic, and moneyed influences that
structures economic life in capitalist Northeast Asia. According to Park
and Ki, the logic of the developmental state system works like this. When
bank receive an implicit state guarantee, it can it can operates
successfully in which its core business come from the loans. This will lead
to the increase in the investment in the market, thus enhancing the
economic growth. Eventually, it helps to achieve the full employment.
There are some key aspects that constitute this theory of developmental
state. First, developmental state has strong and active government. The
state-centric management is the key to the industrialisation where the
government actively intervene in the economic activities according to
national strategies although it not replace the private ownership directly
which act as a catalytic agency. Second, the states have pilot agency
which formulate the states policies. For example in Japan, the Ministry of
International Trade (MITI) and Industry whereas Korea, the Economic
Planning Board (EPB). Third, there would be industrial policy in the
government to make enhance the economy which implies a strategic or
goal-oriented approach. Fourth, there were close relationship between
elite bureaucracy and private sector. On one side, this system was
perceive as a paradise for big business because the keiretsu or chaebols
got more power, backed by the government. However, this system has
proved to be right when it subsequently help some the East Asian country
to come out form poverty after series of war in the 20 th century. There are
many countries in this region, East Asia, that practice this type of system
such as Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea. Particularly,
in this research paper, I would like to discover the emergence of
developmental state happened in South Korea because I really admire its
success in being one of the Four Tigers. In doing so, I will recover the past
history of South Korea from the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II
until 1970s. I will also analyse the consequences of two economic crisis
during the period of 1998 and 2008 on South Korea economy followed by
the relevance of the developmental state model to this days. Also,
important to bear that I will not cover the whole process of
democratisation in South Korea although it may affect the economy
because the main focus here is the emergence of the developmental state
in the country.