SOUTH KOREA- THE CRISIS-TORN TRANSITION TO A NEW MODE OF ACCUMULATION

Year 1998, , 83 - 112, 22.06.1998

Holger Heide

https://doi.org/10.29228/mjes.313

Abstract

The original Korean mode of accumulation was of great historic relevance for the process of modernisation which is the vital prerequisite for the valuation of cap- ital. It was also highly efficient- particularly in relation to the development strategy in other countries. This, however, could only continue for the period of time during which the extensive utilisation of labour power was at least partially possible. Retrospective criticism is quite unfounded in this respect.

In the following I will make the attempt to show that it is the same powers who are responsible, not only for the original success, but also for the actual crisis. The de- velopment in South Korea over the whole period of the last half-century has been de- pendent on the one hand (domestically), on the role of world capital, which has toler- ated and reinforced the accumulation regime. These two aspects are, of course, not to be seen separately, but rather as being intertwined in a close global relationship.

The need to establish a new mode of accumulation results from the fact that the most powerful institutions of world capital have, for reasons of competition, dis- mantled the foundations of the Korean model and that, as a parallel development, for internal reasons the previously extremely effecient mode of accumulation has exhausted its scope for exploitation. The fact that the implementation of a new mode of accumulation manifests itself in crisis is due to the persistence of structures and to subjectively resistent action. That is true for those parts of the power-elite who fear to become thelossers of the expected 'change", as well as for the resistent masses of workers, who only under threat of a "crisis" can be made willing to tighten their belts. For me, the really crucial issue is the question for the possibility of an alternative - the development of solidarity. 

Keywords

-, SOUTH KOREA, NEW MODE OF ACCUMULATION, THE CRISIS

References

• Chang, Ha-Joon {1993): The Political Economy of Industrial Policy in Korea. In: Cambridge Journal of Economics. Vol. 17. pp. 131 -157.
• Cumings, Bruce {1997): Korea's Place in the Sun. New York.
• Dornbusch- Rudi {1998): Why investors should favour Korea. In: Digital Chason 1/bo- English Edition, 05.03.98.
• Dorner, Klaus {1988): Todliches Mitleid. Zur Frage der Unertraglichkeit des Lebens oder: die Soziale Frage: Entstehung, Medizinierung, NS-Endlosung, heute, morgen. GOtersloh.
• Ferenczi, Sandor {1933): Sprachverwirrung zwischen dem Erwachsenen und dem Kind. Die Sprache der Zartlichkeit und der Leidenschaft. In: Schriften zur Psychoanalyse. Vol II.
• Gruen, Amo {1997): Der Verlust des Mitge!Ohls. Ober die Politik der GleichgOitigkeit. MOnchen.
• Gruen, Amo {1986): Der Verrat am Selbst. Die Angst vor Autonomie bei Mann und Frau. MOnchen.
• Hartmann, Delle! {1988): Die Alternative. Leben als Sabotage. 2. Aufl. MOnchen.
• Heide, Holger {1998): The Creation of Individual and Collective Strategies of Survival as a Pre-condition for Capitalist Development - The Case of South Korea. In: Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Korean Studies. University of Osaka. Forthcoming.
• Heide, Holger {1997a): A New Pradigm of Work. Lecture at the International Symposium on The Future of Work and Labor. 30./31. Mai 1997. Seoul. Forthcoming.
• Heide, Holger {1997b): Soziale lmplikationen der erfolgreichen Strategie der Weltmarktintegration SOdKorea. Arbeitspapiere zur soziallokonomischen Ost-Asien-Forschung. Nr. 1. Universitat Bremen.
• Heide, Holger {1996): Hanguk nodong-undongeseo Togil nodong-undongeul paraboneun sigake Taehan pip'anjeok kyeonhae (Some critical remarks to the attitude of Korean unions to
• German labour movement). In: Hyeonjangeseo miraereul (Monthly Review of the Korean Institute for Labor Studies and Policy, Seoul). No. 11 . June, 1966.
• Heide, Holger {1996): China - Korea. Koreanische Direktinvestionen in China und chinesische Arbeiter lnnen in Korea. In: Bass, Hans. H., Wohlmuth, Karl (Hg.): China in der Weltwirtschaft. Hamburg.
• Henderson, G.A. {1968): Korea. The Politics of the Vortex. Cambridge.
• Hirsch, Joachim {1995): Der Wettbewerbsstaat. Berlin. 112 SOUTH KOREA- THE CRISIS-TORN TRANSITION TO A NEW MODE OF ACCUMULATION
• Hirsch, Mathias (1986): Zwei Arlen der ldentifikation mit dem Aggressor- nach Ferenczi und Anna Freud. In: Praxis Kinderpsychologie und Kinderpsychiatrie. Vol. 45. pp. 198-205. Ki:iln.
• Hwang, Ki-Don (1996): Okonomische Entwicklung und Lebenswirklichkeit von Arbeiterfamilien in Sudkorea. Hamburg.
• Kang, Su-Dol (1996): Globalization of the Labor Market in South Korea. Manuscript of a Lecture hold at the International Conference on the Dynamics of Labor Migration in Asia. Tokyo.
• Kang, Su-Dol (1995): Fordismus und Hyundaismus. Frankfurt am Main.
• Kim, Eun-Young (1997): Wandel der lntimitat und Manner in der koreanischen Familie. Manuskript eines Vortrags auf der koreanisch-deutschen Soziologenkonferenz "Giobalisierung und kulturelle ldentitat", 26- 28. Mai 1997 an der Akademie fUr Korea-Studien in Seoul.
• Krugman, Paul (1998): What happened to Asia. http://web.mit.edu/krugmanlwww/ DISINTER.html
• Krugman, Paul (1997): What ever happened to the Asian Miracle? In: Fortune, Aug.
• Krugman, Paul (1994 ): The Myth of Asia's Miracle. Foreign Affairs, Voll. 73 Nr. 6.
• Lee, Chung H. (1995): The Economic Transformation of South Korea. Lessons for the Transition Economies. OECD. Paris.
• Lee, Eun-Jeung (1997): Konfuzianismus und Kapitalismus. Marl<! und Herrschaft in Ostasien. Munster.
• Leftwich, Adrian (1995): Bringing Politics Back In: Towards a Model of the Development State. In: The Journal of Developmental Studies. Vol. 31, No. 3, Feb. 1995. London.
• Lowen, Alexander (1989): Fear for Life. New York.
• Marx, Kart (1993): Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Rough Draft). Harmondsworth. (The quotations in this paper are from the German original published for the first time in Moscow 1939: Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Okonomie. Rohentwurf).
• Palley, Howard A. (1992): Social Policy and the Elderly in South Korea. In: Asian Survey. Vol. 32, No. 9, pp. 787 - 801 .
• Sachs, Jeffrey D. (1997): Asia's Miracle is Alive and Well. In: Time, Sep. 29. Schaef, Anne Wilson and Fassel, Diane (1988): The Addictive Organization. San Francisco.
• Shim, Jae-Hoon (1997): Rose-Tinted Glasses. A troubled nation revives its former military leader. In: Far Eastern Economic Review. July 17.
• Thompson, Edward P. (1967): Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism. In: Past and Present. 38. pp. 56 - 97.
• Thompson, Edward P. (1968): The Making of the English Working Class. Oxford.