ABSTRACT
Private initiative is limited by the size of the market, where market size is defined by the output of privately produced goods and services. This chapter deals with an East Asian case—South Korea, or the Republic of Korea. Because the East Asian case is one of successful economic development, it should provide a useful model or paradigm for examining the factors that impinge on private initiative in Africa. The main concern is private initiative as it affects individuals in their economic roles as producers, whether entrepreneurs or not, and in particular the public and structural influences on private initiative. Private initiative, where accepted usage of "initiative" denotes individual enterprise or the capacity to originate new ideas and methods, is the sort of individual attribute that improves economic performance and therefore should be very important for economic development. Emphasis on the cooperant factors implies that private initiative is a latent characteristic and there is determined by demand rather than supply.
