Introduction

Cultural policy in contemporary South Korea strives to be democratic, neoliberal, globalist and remarkably state-driven. It presents an unusual case of state policy on culture that was successfully reoriented from authoritarian to democratic and has proliferated by vigorously embracing neoliberal and globalist agendas and turning them into national development projects. The new patron state in Korea not only defies 'the myth of the powerless state' in the era of neoliberalisation and globalisation. The interpretation of 'the state' in relation to culture is a potent organiser of governance, which establishes and maintains socio-political orders within its territory and among its people. Understanding 'the state' from the perspective of mode of coordination is another way to ponder the state-culture relationship. The state's cultural policy capacity can be categorised into three different types. These are 'discursive capacity', 'implementational capacity' and 'reflexive capacity'. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.