ABSTRACT

Abstract: This case study charts the transformation into one of the richest democracies in the world of a country devastated by war and in the hands of a dictatorship and a powerful foreign patron, the United States. Early South Korean governments focused on economic development and anticommunism as their survival strategy in a lethal international environment at the front lines of the Cold War. They produced unprecedented economic growth rates and a thriving middle class, which in turn pushed for political democratization, which was realized in 1987. During the twenty years of democracy since 1987, Korean leaders fell to charges of corruption-the old way of doing business-and were prosecuted through the court system-the new way of doing business. In the process, the role of civil society rapidly grew with the rapid expansion of nongovernmental organizations. Despite a decade-long effort to defuse tensions with North Korea, since the election of the conservative president, Lee Myung-bak, in 2008 tensions have escalated.