Towards a theory of the transformation of the developmental state: political elites, social actors and state policy constraints in South Korea and Taiwan

Abstract

The institutional changes to the developmental states in South Korea and Taiwan have been well-documented. This paper offers a theory to recount the states' actual transformation processes in these two cases. Advancing existing insight that the state's transformation process is shaped by the emergence of either concentrated or dispersed economic interests, I argue that a crucial process behind the transformation of the developmental state is a democratic transition of a country motivated by ruling elites' strategic choices. Specifically, a democratic transition in a developmental state is shaped by two consecutive elite decisions: (1) the decision to initiate democratic transition in response to the democratic mobilisation of the middle class; (2) the decision to introduce democratic elections in response to an electoral threat from opposition elites. This process of democratic transition facilitates the emergence of state policy constraints by transforming the political foundation of the state.

Transforming the East Asian developmental state: Democratic mobilisation and the role of the middle class

“…This is the case for Taiwan in which the development process promoted by the state deterred the democratic mobilisation of the working class. My own work contains an analysis of the Taiwanese case (He, 2019).…”

Delegating violence in democracies: embedded developmentalism and persistence of labor repression in South Korea

“…Meanwhile, the middle class, which had been supportive of the early labor movement during the authoritarian period, was gradually turning away due to labor's increasing militancy. At the same time, the ruling elite needed to ensure the support of the middle class which had become the new legitimizing force (He, 2019), and in doing so, had to break any cross-class alliance. On-going violent and unlawful clashes following democratic elections began to create a negative image of labor and the perception that the movement had lost its ‘moral authority’ (Ogle, 1990: 129) 14 .…”