How South Korea Lifted Itself from Poverty and Dictatorship to Affluence and Democracy

The South Korean story is the greatest development story ever told. There are two mysteries: How could a destroyed country in next to no time become a sophisticated and affluent capitalist economy? And how could a ruthlessly authoritarian regime metamorphose with relative ease into a stable democratic polity? Korean development has, as is well known, been state-lead. But just what kind of leadership did the Korean state provide? An answer is proposed in a case of social policy analysis as state analysis.

Stein Ringen is Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Oxford and guest at the WZB. In his research he focuses on issues of  ‚good government‘: how can democratic governments be effective, given the many constraints they have to cope with? Together with Huck-ju Kwon, Ilcheong Yi, Taekyoon Kim and Jooha Lee Stein Ringen just published: The Korean State and Social Policy, Oxford University Press 2011.

Wolfgang Merkel is director of the WZB research unit Democracy: Structures, Performance, Challenges, which hosts Stein Ringen during the spring of 2011.


Please reply by May 9, 2011 to Marie Unger, e-mail: marie.unger [at] wzb.eu.