ABSTRACT
Theories of the world system and of bureaucratic-authoritarian states in Latin America emerged about a decade ago in American scholarship, the key works being those by Immanuel Wallerstein (1974) and Guillermo O'Donnell (1973). With a few exceptions (e.g., Moulder 1977), little work has been done to see how East Asian development looks through the lenses of either theory. In this essay I wish to make some overarching comments on the theories themselves, and suggest ways in which East Asian development in general and Korean development in particular may help inform the theories and may be explained by them, at least in part.
