ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to examine the current democratic transition in South Korea both in an empirical and historical context. The success story of South Korea in development provides us with two edges of the connection between economic development and political regime. On the one hand, as cited by Sah5 and Bardhan,6 its development under President Park and President Chun provides a case in favor of an authoritarian regime that fosters economic growth by insulating development-minded decision makers from short-term rent-seeking and distributive politics. On the other hand, it also provides a case for the Lipset proposition in the sense that its economic development invited democratic transition under President Roh and the cur-
rent President Kim. In this regard, a careful examination of the South Korean case is fully warranted. In my view, South Korea is a perfect example of supporting the view of comparative historical research, advanced by Huber, Rueschemeyer, and Stephens7 and endorsed by Bardhan,8 that the level of economic development is causally related to the development of political democracy. In the present chapter, I examine how capitalist development in South Korea has transformed the class structure and the nature of economic dependency.
