Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:41:20.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Crony Capitalism’ in South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan: Myth and Reality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

Byung-Kook Kim  and
Hyug-Baeg Im
Byung-Kook Kim
Affiliation:
Korea University
Hyug-Baeg Im
Affiliation:
Korea University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A new myth is in the making. Once held as a model of development by practitioners and theorists alike, East Asia's Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs) are now identified as an epitome of ‘crony capitalism,’ a perversely deformed system of political and economic exchange driven by rent seekers. The privileged few have allegedly captured the state to pillage banks and sabotage market forces in pursuit of rents. But imbued with Confucian norms, which Francis Fukuyama (1995) once characterized as limiting the ‘radius’ of trust to familial ties, society cannot weed out rent seekers. The emphasis on personal loyalty is held as breeding clientelistic networks, which easily degenerate into a collusion for monopoly profits. Hiding behind a profoundly opaque corporate governance structure and protected by dense political patronage networks, business firms engage in shady deals to share rents with party politicians and state bureaucrats. From this perspective, the 1997 financial crisis was a logical outcome of East Asia's exclusionary cultural proclivities, opaque institutional arrangements, and shady business practices.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , February 2001 , pp. 5 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amsden, Alice H. 1989. Asia's Next Giant: South Korea and Late Industrialization. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Amsden, Alice H. 1992. Taiwan in International Perspective. In Taiwan's Enterprises in Global Perspective. Wang, N. T. (ed). New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Balassa, Bella and Williamson, John. 1987. Adjusting to Success: Balance of Payments Policy in the East Asian NICs. Washington, D. C.: Institute for International Economics.Google Scholar
Beer, Samuel H. 1982. Britain Against Itself: The Political Contradictions of Collectivism. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Bungbongkarn, Suchit. 1992. Thailand in 1991. Asian Survey 32 (2): 131–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bungbongkarn, Suchit. 1996. State of the Nation: Thailand. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.Google Scholar
Chan, Steve and Clark, Cal. 1992. Flexibility, Foresight, and Fortuna in Taiwan's Development: Navigating between Scylla and Charybdis. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cheng, Tun-jen. 1990. Political Regimes and Development Strategies: South Korea and Taiwan. In Manufacturing Miracles: Path of Industrialization in Latin America and East Asia. Gereffi, Gary and Wyman, Donald L. (ed). Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, Tun-jen and Chu, Yun-han. Forthcoming. Restructuring State-Business Relationship in South Korea and Taiwan: Meeting the Challenges of Democratization and Globalization. In State, Market and Democracy: East Asian and Latin America. Whitehead, Laurence (ed). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Chu, Yun-han. 1989. State Structure and Economic Adjustment of the East Asian Newly Industrializing Countries. International Organization 43 (4): 647–672.Google Scholar
Chu, Yun-han. 1994a. The State and the Development of the Automobile Industry in South Korea and Taiwan. In The Role of the State in Taiwan's Development. Aberbach, Joel D., Dollar, David, and Sokoloff, Kenneth L. (ed). New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Chu, Yun-han. 1994b. The Realignment of Business-Government Relations and Regime Transition in Taiwan. In Business and Government in Industrializing Asia. MacIntyre, Andrew (ed). Sydney: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Chu, Yun-han. 1999. Surviving the East Asian Financial Storm: The Political Foundation of Taiwan's Economic Resilience. In The Politics of the Asian Economic Crisis. Pempel, T. J. (ed). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Christensen, Scott R. 1993. Democracy without Equity?: The Institutions and Political Consequences of Bangkok-based Development. A paper presented at the 1993 Year-End Conference on “Who Gets What and How?: Challenges for the Future.” TDRI. December 10–11.Google Scholar
Christensen, Scott R. and Siamwalla, Ammar. 1993. Beyond Patronage: Tasks for the Thai State. A paper presented at the 1993 Year-End Conference on “Who Gets What and How?: Challenges for the Future.” TDRI. December 10–11.Google Scholar
Chun, Jae-Kook. 1995. Dongnamaui baljeonjeonryak'kwa jeongchikwajeong: singaporewa taekukui saneophwajeonryak bigyoyeonku (Development strategies and political processes: A comparative study of industrialization strategies in Singapore and Thailand). In Dongnamaui jeongchigyongjae: saneophwawa baljeonjeonryak (The political economy of Southeast Asia: Industrialization and development strategies). Koh, Woo Sung et al. Seoul: Research Foundation for Twenty-First Century Korea.Google Scholar
Clough, Ralph. 1991. Taiwan under Nationalist Rule, 1949–1982. In The Peoples' Republic, Part 2: Revolutions within the Chinese Revolution, 1966–1982. MacFarquhar, Roderick and Fairbank, John K. (ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cole, David C. and Lyman, Princeton N. 1971. Korean Development: The Interplay of Politics and Economics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, Donald F. 1995. Thailand: Dictatorship or Democracy? London: Minerva.Google Scholar
Copper, John F. 1994. Taiwan's 1991 and 1992 Non-Supplemental Elections: Reaching a Higher State of Democracy. Maryland: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Copper, John F. 1998. Taiwan's Mid-1990s Elections: Taking the Final Steps to Democracy. Connecticut: Praeger.Google Scholar
Crone, Donald K. 1988. State, Social Elites, and Government Capacity in Southeast Asia. World Politics 15 (2): 252–268.Google Scholar
Cumings, Bruce. 1981. The Origins of the Korean War: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes 1945–1947. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Doner, Richard F. and Unger, Daniel. 1993. The Politics of Finance in Thai Economic Development. In The Politics of Finance in Developing Countries. Haggard, Stephan, Lee, Chung H. and Maxfield, Sylvia (ed). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Doner, Richard F. and Ramsay, Ansil. 1997. Competitive Clientelism and Economic Governance: the Case of Thailand. In Business and the State in Developing Countries. Maxfield, Sylvia and Schneider, Ben Ross (ed). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Economic Planning Board (EPB). 1982. Gaebalnyondaeui gyongjae jeongchaek: gyongjaegihwaekwon isipnyonsa (Economic policy during the developmental decades: the twenty-year history of economic planning board). Seoul: EPB.Google Scholar
Evans, Peter. 1995. Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Peter. 1997. State Structures, Government-Business Relations, and Economic Transformation. In Business and the State in Developing Countries. Maxfield, Sylvia and Schneider, Ben Ross (ed). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER). June 25, 1992.Google Scholar
Fields, Karl J. 1995. Enterprise and the State in South Korea and Taiwan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, Francis. 1995. Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Girling, John. 1981. Thailand: Society and Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gold, Thomas B. 1988. Entrepreneurs, Multinationals, and the State. In Contending Approaches to the Political Economy of Taiwan. Winckler, Edwin A. and Greenhalgh, Susan (ed). New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Greenhalgh, Susan. 1988. Families and Networks in Taiwan's Economic Development. In Contending Approaches to the Political Economy of Taiwan. Winckler, Edwin A. and Greenhalgh, Susan (ed). New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan and Pang, Chien-Kuo. 1994. The Transition to Export-Led Growth in Taiwan. In The Role of the State in Taiwan's Development. Aberbach, Joel D., Dollar, David, and Sokoloff, Kenneth L. (ed). New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, Maxfield, Sylvia, and Schneider, Ben Ross. 1997. Theories of Business and Business-State Relations. In Business and the State in Developing Countries. Maxfield, Sylvia and Schneider, Ben Ross (ed). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Halbeisen, Hermann. 1993. In Search of a New Political Order?: Political Reform in Taiwan. In In the Shadow of China: Political Developments in Taiwan since 1949. Tsang, Steve (ed). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Gary G. and Biggart, Nicole Woolsey. 1988. Market, Culture, and Authority: A Comparative Analysis of Management and Organization in the Far East. American Journal of Sociology, 94 (Supplement): S52–S94.Google Scholar
Henderson, Gregory. 1968. Korea: The Politics of Vortex. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ho, Samuel P. S. 1982. Economic Development and Rural Industry in South Korea and Taiwan. World Development, 10(11): 973–990.Google Scholar
Ho, Samuel P. S. 1987. Economics, Economic Bureaucracy, and Taiwan's Economic Development. Pacific Affairs, 60(2): 226–247.Google Scholar
Hood, Steven J. 1997. The Kuomintang and the Democratization of Taiwan. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Hsu, Chen-Kuo. 1994. Ideological Reflections and the Inception of Economic Development in Taiwan. In The Role of the State in Taiwan's Development. Aberbach, Joel D., Dollar, David, and Sokoloff, Kenneth L. (ed). New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Hsu, Cho-yun Hsu. 1993. Historical Setting for the Rise of Chiang Ching-kuo. In Chiang Ching-kuo's Leadership in the Development of the Republic of China on Taiwan. Shao-chuan Leng. Maryland: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Hu, Fu. 1993. The Electoral Mechanism and Political Change in Taiwan. In In the Shadow of China: Political Developments in Taiwan since 1949. Tsang, Steve (ed). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Chalmers. 1982. MITI and the Japanese Miracle. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Jomo, K. S. et al. 1997. Southeast Asia's Misunderstood Miracle: Industrial Policy and Economic Development in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Kim, Byung-Kook. 1994. Bundan'gwa hyokmyongui donghak: han'gukgwa mexicoui jeongchi kyongjae (The Dynamics of National Division and Revolution: The Political Economy of Korea and Mexico). Seoul: Munhakgwa jiseongsa.Google Scholar
Kim, Byung-Kook. 2000a. Party Politics in South Korea's Democracy: The Crisis of Success. In Consolidating Democracy in South Korea. Diamond, Larry and Kim, Byung-Kook (ed). Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Kim, Byung-Kook. 2000b. Electoral Politics and Economic Crisis, 1997–1998. In Consolidating Democracy in South Korea. Diamond, Larry and Kim, Byung-Kook (ed). Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Kim, Byung-Kook. and Lim, Hyun-Chin. 2000. Labor Against Itself: Structural Dilemmas of State Monism. In Consolidating Democracy in South Korea. Diamond, Larry and Kim, Byung-Kook (ed). Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Kim, Eun Mee. 1988. From Dominance to Symbiosis: State and Chaebol in South Korea. Pacific Focus, 3(2): 105–121.Google Scholar
Kim, Jin-Hyun. 1964. Bujong chukjaeja cheori jeonmalseo (The final report on the illicit profiteers' court sentences). Sindonga (December): 158–177.Google Scholar
Kim, Joungwon Alexander. 1976. Divided Korea: The Politics of Development, 1945–1972. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, Kyong-Dong. 1976. Political Factors in the Formation of the Entrepreneurial Elite in South Korea. Asian Survey, 16(5): 465–477.Google Scholar
Krueger, Anne O. 1979. The Developmental Role of the Foreign Sector and Aid. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Krugman, Paul. 1998. Saving Asia: It's Time to Get Radical, Fortune Investor, September 7.Google Scholar
Kunio, Yoshihara. 1988. The Rise of Ersatz Capitalism in South-East Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laothamatas, Anek. 1988. Business and Politics in Thailand: New Patterns of Influence. Asian Survey, 28(4): 451–470.Google Scholar
Laothamatas, Anek. 1992. Business Associations and the New Political Economy of Thailand: From Bureaucratic Polity to Liberal Corporatism. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Laothamatas, Anek. 1994. From Clientelism to Partnership: Business-Government Relations in Thailand. In Business and Government in Industrializing Asia. MacIntyre, Andrew (ed). Sydney: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Lauridsen, Laurids S. 1998. Thailand: Causes, Conduct, Consequences. In Tigers in Trouble: Financial Governance, Liberalization and Crises in East Asia. Jomo, K. S. (ed). London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Lee, Chang Young and Song, Chi Young. 1999. Taekook bahthwa wigiui won'inkwa sisajeom (The Causes and Implications of the Thai Baht Crisis). Korea Institute of Finance Policy Papers, Vol. 99, No. 3.Google Scholar
Lee, Chong-Sik. 1978. Korean Workers' Party: A Short History, Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Lee, Seung Hwan et al. 1999. Asiajeok gachi (Asian values). Seoul: Jeontong'gwa hyondae.Google Scholar
Leipziger, Danny M. 1988. Industrial Restructuring in South Korea World Development, 16(1): 121–135.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour M. and Rokkan, Stein. 1967. Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments. In Party System and Voter Alignments. Lipset, Seymour M. and Rokkan, Stein (ed). Boston: Free Press.Google Scholar
MacIntyre, Andrew. 1999. Political Institutions and the Economic Crisis in Thailand and Indonesia. In The Politics of the Asian Economic Crisis. Pempel, T. J. (ed). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Mackie, J. A. C. 1988. Economic Growth in the ASEAN Region: The Political Underpinnings. In Achieving Industrialization in East Asia. Hughes, Helen (ed). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McVey, Ruth. 1992. The Materialization of the Southeast Asian Entrepreneur. In Southeast Asian Capitalists, McVey, Ruth (ed). Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University.Google Scholar
Morell, David and Samudavanija, Chai-Anan. 1981. Political Conflict in Thailand: Reform, Reaction, Revolution. Cambridge: Oelgeschlager Gunn & Main Publishers.Google Scholar
Myers, Ramon H. 1990. The Economic Development of the Republic of China on Taiwan, 1965–1981. In Models of Development: A Comparative Study of Economic Growth in South Korea and Taiwan. Lau, Lawrence J. (ed). San Francisco: ICS Press.Google Scholar
Okimoto, Daniel I. 1989. Between MITI and the Market: Japanese Industrial Policy for High Technology. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pak, Eun Hong. 1998. Seongjangkwa wuigi: kukga-gieop yeongyolmangui du Ulgul (Growth and Crisis: The Two Faces of Government-Business Networks). In Research Society on South Korean Politics. edited by Dongasia baljeonmodeleun silpaehaetneunga? (Did the East Asian Development Model Fail?), Seoul: Samin.Google Scholar
Pak, Gwang Ju. 1988. Han'gukui guk'ka inyomgwa hyonsil:jayu minjujuui inyomgwa gwonwijuuijok hyonsilganui galdeung (The State Ideology and Reality in Korea: The Conflict between Liberal Democracy and Authoritarian Reality). Han'guk jeongchihakhoebo, 22(2): 33–48.Google Scholar
Panebianco, Angelo. 1988. Political Parties: Organization and Power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Park, Yung Chul. 1994. Korea: Development and Structural Change of the Financial System. In The Financial Development of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan: Growth, Repression, and Liberalization. Patrick, Hugh and Park, Yung Chul (ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Park, Yung Chul and Kim, Dong Won. 1994. South Korea: Development and Structural Change of the Banking System. In The Financial Development of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan: Growth, Repression, and Liberalization. Patrick, Hugh and Park, Yung Chul (ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Patrick, Hugh T. 1994. Comparisons, Contrasts, and Implications. In The Financial Development of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan: Growth, Repression, and Liberalization. Patrick, Hugh and Park, Yung Chul (ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Phongpaichit, Pasuk. 1980. The Open Economy and Its Friends: The ‘Development’ of Thailand. Pacific Affairs, 53(3): 440–460.Google Scholar
Phongpaichit, Pasuk. 1992. Technocrats, Businessmen, and Generals: Democracy and Economic Policymaking in Thailand. In The Dynamics of Economic Policy Reform in South-East Asia and South-West Pacific. MacIntyre, Andrew J. and Jayasuriya, Kanishka (ed). Singapore: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Phongpaichit, Pasuk and Baker, Chris. 1996. Thailand's Boom. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Riggs, Fred W. 1996. Thailand: The Modernization of a Bureaucratic Polity. Honolulu: East-West Center.Google Scholar
Roh, In-Hwan. 1983. Interview with Samsung Group Chairman Lee Byong-Cheol. In Jeon'gyongryon isipnyonsa (The twenty-year history of the Federation of Korean Industries). Jeon'gyongryon, (ed). Seoul: Jeon'gyongryon.Google Scholar
Samudavanija, Chai-Anan and Chotiya, Parichart. 1998. Beyond Transition in Thailand. In Democracy in East Asia. Diamond, Larry and Plattner, Marc F. (ed). Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Scitovsky, Tibor. 1990. Economic Development in Taiwan and South Korea, 1965–1981. In Models of Development: A Comparative Study of Economic Growth in South Korea and Taiwan. Lau, Lawrence J. (ed). San Francisco: ICS Press.Google Scholar
Siamwalla, Ammar. 1997. Can a Developing Democracy Manage Its Macroeconomy?: The Case of Thailand. In Thailand's Boom and Bust: Collected Papers. Thailand Development Research Institute, Bangkok: Thailand Development Research Institute.Google Scholar
Shea, Jia-dong. 1994. Taiwan: Development and Structural Change of the Financial System. In The Financial Development of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan: Growth, Repression, and Liberalization. Patrick, Hugh T. and Park, Yung Chul (ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Suh, Jin-Young and Kim, Byung-Kook. 1999. The Politics of Reform: Dilemma, Choice and Crisis. In The World after the Cold War: Issues and Dilemmas. Suh, Jin-Young and Soh, Changrok (ed), Seoul: Graduate School of International Studies, Korea University.Google Scholar
Tien, Hung-mao. 1993. Dynamics of Taiwan's Democratic Transition. In In the Shadow of China: Political Developments in Taiwan since 1949. Tsang, Steve (ed). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles (ed). 1975. The Formation of National States in Western Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Vongvipanond, Pairoj. 1990. Reform and Privatization of State Enterprises in Thailand. In Privatization and Deregulation in ASEAN and the EC. Pelkmans, Jacques and Wagner, Nobert (ed). Singapore: ISEAS.Google Scholar
Wade, Robert. 1985. East Asian Financial Systems as a Challenge to Economics: Lessons from Taiwan. California Management Review, 27 (4): 106–127.Google Scholar
Wade, Robert. 1990. Governing the Market: Economic Theory and the Role of Government in East Asian Industrialism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wade, Robert. 1993. Managing Trade: Taiwan and South Korea as Challenges to Economics and Political Science. Comparative Politics, 25(2): 147–167.Google Scholar
Winckler, Edwin A. 1988. Elite Political Struggle, 1945–1985. In Contending Approaches to the Political Economy of Taiwan. Winckler, Edwin A. and Greenhalgh, Susan (ed). New York: M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Woo, Jung-en. 1991. Race to the Swift: State and Finance in Korean Industrialization. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Ya-hwei. 1994. Taiwan: Development and Structural Change of the Banking System. In The Financial Development of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan: Growth, Repression, and Liberalization. Patrick, Hugh T. and Park, Yung Chul (ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zakaria, Fareed. 1994. Conversation with Lee Kwan-yeu, Foreign Affairs, 73 (March/April): 109–126.Google Scholar
Zeigler, Harmon. 1988. Pluralism, Corporatism, and Confucianism: Political Association and Conflict Regulation in the United States, Europe and Taiwan. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar