State-led globalization in South Korea

This study examines political economy of globalization in South Korea. Today, South Korea is one of the fastest globalizing economies in the world and this project shows that the state was the leading force in bringing the country's rapid economic globalization. In this sense, I define South Korea's globalization as state-led globalization. Criticizing the developmental state model of the past authoritarian regime, the Kim Young Sam government (1993-1997) introduced economic globalization as a new development model of South Korea. The Kim Dae Jung administration (1998-2002) succeeded and further accelerated economic globalization policy. Recognizing the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis as the most important external pressure for South Korea's economic globalization, this study focuses on how the Kim Dae Jung government utilized this crisis situation to enforce drastic economic globalization measures.;South Korea's state-led globalization, however, had a detrimental impact on the working class. The project pays a special attention to the problem of non-regular workers in South Korea. Since the 1990s, the number of non-regular workers has continuously increased and most of them suffer from job insecurity, low wage, and discrimination. This study attempts to explain how South Korea's state-led globalization affected the rise in the number of these contingent workers. I show that through direct flexible labor market policy and indirect support of firms' illegal usage of contingent workers, the South Korean state contributed to a rise of non-regular jobs. Without governmental support and policy, such a drastic increase in the number of non-regular workers would not have been possible. I also examine the impact of globalization on the working class solidarity and highlight division between non-regular and regular workers in the workplaces. Labor unions were hesitant in supporting non-regular worker movement as unions only represented the interests of regular workers. Such division of the working class prevented the South Korean non-regular workers from achieving their labor rights through institutionalized labor union activities.