ABSTRACT
IN 1987, after three decades of authoritarian rule backed by the military, Korea negotiated a peaceful transition to democracy and by 1992 had demonstrated, with the completion of its second presidential election under the new constitution, that its new democracy was there to stay. This political change came about after three decades of rapid growth and industrialization during which Korea developed from one of the poorest countries in the Asia-Pacific region, measured by GNP per capita, to one of the richest. Is there a causal relationship between these two developments? We believe there is--but there are other causal relationships as well.
