The Positive Role Of Park Chung Hee's Regime In Korean Modernization

Since the sixties, in less than 30 years, Korea had stridden into the ranks of emerging nations. It had created "a miracle of Han River" and had taken "a modernized road of Korea" . Though Korea went through new development in the 1980s, the study of Korean modernization was put emphasis on the development of Korean society in Park Chung Hee ' s period. This article attempts to investigate characteristics of Park' s regime and probes into relations between modernized success and the government guides. Besides preface and conclusion, the article is divided into five parts.The preface discusses the research aim and meaning of this thesis and introduces the domestic and international general research on this subject in these few years.The first part of article reviews Korean modernized process briefly. I think that the Korean modernization had gone through three stages: a preparatory stage, the stage that took off and the stage that went forward steadily. Colonial rule of Japan and Rhee's governance were in preparatory stage. Korean modernization took off after Park Chung Hee was in power. Modernized task was basically finished during the beginning the eighties of the 20th century. Thus, Korea had entered a firm stage of development.The second part of article analyzes characteristics of Park's regime. The characteristics were: Rely on military strength to suppress democracy and safeguard the political authority; Advocate the theory that science runs a country and let expert run a country; The doctrine that economy had priority was its important political policy; Punish corrupted behavior...