| This study addresses two major issues: (1) the transformation of the state's relationship with domestic private capitalists in the course of economic development in Korea since the 1960s, and (2) the underlying reasons for the transformation. These issues are studied with specific reference to the case of the semiconductor industry. Against the received, undiscriminating characterization of the Korean state as a "strong" state, I argue that it is necessary to investigate carefully the nature of state power and its variation, over time and across issue areas, in Korea.;Between 1965 and 1972, the state played a commanding role in creating an exclusively export-oriented semiconductor sector in Korea by dint of the off-shore assembly activities of, first, American firms, and, then, Japanese ones. At the same time, the state also kept tight control over domestic private capitalists in nurturing the domestic electronics industry in its rudimentary phase of development. Between 1973 and 1979, as part of an ambitious program of heavy and chemical industrialization, the state actively promoted the indigenization of technologically sophisticated segments of semiconductor manufacturing, with enthusiastic response from private capital. Dependence on foreign capital and technology put substantial constraints on the indigenization process. During the 1980s, however, the four largest chaebol groups, with their cross-sectoral, group-wide resources, took the initiative in building up the semiconductor manufacturing as a highly technology-intensive sector. The transition in the relationship between the state and the private sector is attributed to the growth of immense chaebol, i.e., centralized, cross-sectoral, multi-company groups. |
