1. From Miracle to Crisis and Back: South Korean Development
Stephanie Gladwin

2. Nicolas Grinberg: Author
Article Purpose: “Analyze the process of economic development and associated political transformations in South Korea since the mid-1960’s” (Grinberg, 2014).
Article Argument: Grinberg argues that the state policies enacted created the widely successful capitalist Korean economic structure from 1960’s until now.

3. 30 year overview
“In only three decades, the country went from a poor, war-destroyed nation to a leading industrial producer where full employment prevailed and poverty was practically uprooted.” -Nicholas Grinberg

4. Goals:
Korea was looking to be able to create a production of relative surplus value on a global scale...
Why?
Create a capitalist structure which requires an influx of capital, hence, relative surplus of product
How?
Simplified Manual Labor processes

5. Trends

6. Economic crisis
Different arguments by four different authors
Neoliberal authors: blamed the market liberalisation program
Statist authors: blamed the state intervention of financial and banking sectors
Marxist authors: saw the development of Korean capitalism in terms of the interaction between domestic and international processes
Grinbergs argument: Global developments in reproduction of Korean capitalism was better than policy centered neoclassical-neoliberal debates

7. Domestic and International
On the domestic side: we see a lack of discipline and a rise of working class political activism
→ wages for manual workers were pushed up
On the international side: U.S. investment in low-wage China in the late 1980’s
→ meant that Korea could not compete in the global market
This caused Korea to have to change their production strategies

8. Important terms to know and why they matter
Moving from ISI to EOI
ISI: Imports-substitute industrialization
EOI: Export-Oriented Industrialization
NIDL- New International Division of Labor in 1970
Definition: Dispersal of parts of production for minimal production costs

9. What did Capitalism mean for Koreans?
Producing commodities=power. They give up some of that power as a sovereign act for representation
Capitalism helped individuals gain:
Citizenship
Political representation

10. Conclusion Export Recovery Plan: 1999
→ Korea had to invest in their labor market. They needed to change their relatively cheap and disciplined labor force to trained and knowledgeable laborers and invest in Technology
→ The Export Recovery Plan was contradictory and resulted in slow growth but today they have a powerful global market.