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[Chunhee]

Development and Democracy in South Korea

I am writing to point out some factors that I see as important to South Korea’s rapid economic growth. As we learned in class, South Korea, one of Asian Tigers, achieved high growth by pursuing an export-driven trade policy, domestic market protection, and a human investment policy.

I believe that the most important factor in South Korea’s economic growth was a long period of political and social stability. In terms of security, the presence of U.S. forces lessened the security burden in South Korea. Even President Park’s authoritarian rule provided the state with the political and social stability that was necessary for economic development.

There is no question that the authoritarian regime restricted human rights and democracy. However, strong leadership and political stability are needed for poor countries to realize economic growth. According to modernization theory, the level of democracy is related to economic development. South Korea recorded rapid economic growth until 1980, but subsequently suffered political upheaval, social disorder, and economic crisis in the course of promoting democracy. Today, Korea is a member of OECD and is trying to become a true developed country.

It is best to pursue democracy and development together and many donor countries want poor countries to pursue economic development and to become democratic. If someone pushes me to choose between economic growth and democracy, I will definitely prefer the economic growth with no democracy over a weak democracy and severe poverty. Therefore, when we discuss the economic development of poor countries, we should think of what the people want, not of what the donor wants.