The political economy of industrial adjustment strategies in South Korea: A comparative study of the textile, steel and semiconductor industries

This dissertation develops a sectoral approach to analyze changing patterns of state intervention over different phases of industrialization in South Korea. The histories of three key industrial sectors (textile, steel, and semiconductor) are examined in detail. The textile sector was a leading industry during the 1950s and 1960s, while the steel sector was an important developing sector in the 1970s. The semiconductor sector is an ascendent industry of the 1980s.;The major thrust of this dissertation is that the role of the South Korean state has varied systematically across sectors and over the four developmental phases: (a) import substitution industrialization (ISI), (b) export-oriented industrialization (EOI), (c) EOI deepening, and (d) secondary EOI. State adjustment strategies--combinations of the "macroeconomic" and "discretionary industrial" policies--have changed in response to internal and external opportunities and constraints. Subsequently, the private sectors employed risk-taking, risk-adaptive, and risk-aversive orientations in response to fluctuations in state strategy. With a mixture of these components, interplay between state and corporate strategy converges or diverges.;The choices of the public and private sector actors are determined by the varying salience of three major sets of variables: economic factors (external or domestic character of market destination and technology acquisition); social bases of coalition formation (developmental and distributive coalitions); and state policy preferences (accumulating and legitimating priorities). The adjustment of the textile and apparel sector, with its differentiated production structure, was determined by an interplay of state and corporate strategies. In contrast, the steel sector adjustments were shaped largely through state leadership. In the semiconductor sector, led by foreign technology and markets, adjustment was determined primarily by market forces.