Skip to Main Content

Developmental Mindset: The Revival of Financial Activism in South Korea

Online ISBN:
9781501704178
Print ISBN:
9781501702525
Publisher:
Cornell University Press
Book

Developmental Mindset: The Revival of Financial Activism in South Korea

Elizabeth Thurbon
Elizabeth Thurbon
University of New South Wales
Find on
Published online:
18 August 2016
Published in print:
31 March 2016
Online ISBN:
9781501704178
Print ISBN:
9781501702525
Publisher:
Cornell University Press

Abstract

The Asian financial crisis of 1997–1998 was supposed to be the death knell for the developmental state. The International Monetary Fund supplied emergency funds for shattered economies but demanded that states liberalize financial markets and withdraw from direct involvement in the economy. Financial liberalization was meant to spell the end of strategic industry policy and the state-directed “policy lending” it involved. Yet, South Korea has since seen a striking revival of financial activism. Policy lending by state-owned development banks has returned the state to the core of the financial system. Korean development banks now account for one quarter of all loans and take the lead in providing low-cost finance to local manufacturing firms in strategic industries. This book argues that an ideational analysis can help explain this renewed financial activism. It demonstrates the presence of a “developmental mindset” on the part of political leaders and policy elites in Korea. The developmental mindset has a long history in Korea but is subject to the vicissitudes of political and economic circumstances. The book traces the structural, institutional, political, and ideational factors that have strengthened and at times weakened the developmental consensus, culminating in the revival of financial activism in Korea. In doing so, it offers a novel defense of the developmental state idea and a new framework for investigating the emergence and evolution of developmental states. It also canvasses the implications of the Korean experience for wider debates concerning the future of financial activism in an era of financialization, energy insecurity, and climate change.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close