This book explores the politics of Korean developmental state and commitment of state agents to rapid industrialization within world political economy, focusing the Korean green revolution. It assesses how differences in state/society relationships affect agricultural research system priorities.

By studying the early splits within Korean nationalism, Michael Robinson shows that the issues faced by Korean nationalists during the Japanese colonial period were complex and enduring. In doing so, Robinson, in this classic text, provides a new context with which to analyze the difficult issues of political identity and national unity that remain central to contemporary Korean politics.

This book explores the politics of Korean developmental state and commitment of state agents to rapid industrialization within world political economy, focusing the Korean green revolution. It assesses how differences in state/society relationships affect agricultural research system priorities.

Perhaps the most commonly held assumption in the field of development is that middle classes are the bounty of economic modernization and growth. As countries gradually transcend their agrarian past and become urbanized and industrialized, so the logic goes, middle classes emerge and gain in number, complexity, cultural influence, social prominence, and political authority. Yet this is only half the story. Middle classes shape industrial and economic development, they are not merely its product; the particular ways in which middle classes shape themselves - and the ways historical conditions shape them - influence development trajectories in multiple ways. This is the story of South Korea's and Taiwan's economic successes and Argentina's and Mexico's relative 'failures' through an examination of their rural middle classes and disciplinary capacities. Can disciplining continue in a context where globalization squeezes middle classes and frees capitalists from the state and social contracts in which they have been embedded?

South Korea underwent rapid economic development under a semi-military, virulently anti-communist government which banned trade unions and kept close checks on the economy. President Roe Tae Woo has, however, since 1987, introduced electoral and social reforms. Strikes and wage rises have followed, leading to a loss of competitive edge, and the growth of opposition parties has resulted in political stalemate. Robert E. Bedeski provides a thorough analysis of the institutions of government in South Korea and how they have been transformed by the introduction of political pluralism, and of the attempt to liberalize without undermining economic success. He also examines the new political parties and their role within the framework of the South Korean political system, as well as their social context. State reforms are compared with developments in Taiwan, the Phillipines, North Korea, China and the former Soviet Union. The major themes of state-building an deconomic development are thoroughly explored. The author also deals with South Korea's international environment and changing foreign policy.

The shifting balance of economic power away from Western Europe and the United States and towards East and Southeast Asia - firstly Japan, then the small 'Tiger' economies, and now the larger nations of Southeast Asia and China, the potential 'Dragons' - has provoked anger, dismay and a search for the 'secrets' of growth and for 'lessons' to be learned. The Rise of Asia brings together recent scholarship analysing the process of economic, social and political development in East and Southeast Asia from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.

Mobilizing for Development tackles the question of how countries achieve rural development and offers a new way of thinking about East Asia's political economy that challenges the developmental state paradigm. Through a comparison of Taiwan (1950s–1970s), South Korea (1950s–1970s), and China (1980s–2000s), Kristen E. Looney shows that different types of development outcomes—improvements in agricultural production, rural living standards, and the village environment—were realized to different degrees, at different times, and in different ways. She argues that rural modernization campaigns, defined as policies demanding high levels of mobilization to effect dramatic change, played a central role in the region and that divergent development outcomes can be attributed to the interplay between campaigns and institutions. The analysis departs from common portrayals of the developmental state as wholly technocratic and demonstrates that rural development was not just a byproduct of industrialization. Looney's research is based on several years of fieldwork in Asia and makes a unique contribution by systematically comparing China's development experience with other countries. Relevant to political science, economic history, rural sociology, and Asian Studies, the book enriches our understanding of state-led development and agrarian change.