ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter sets out the main rationale for and the methodology of the volume, and how it differs from other approaches and extant critiques of the (Korean) developmental state. This volume suggests that ‘statism’, the idea that the state is the main agent of national development as it is autonomous from both domestic society and the global economy, has been either taken for granted or inadequately challenged by most literature on the developmental state. The chapter discusses how statism enforces and is enforced by ‘Third World Developmentalism’, the assumption that more development is in itself desirable, particularly in the context of the Third World. The chapter argues that to the extent that statism is pervasive across most development theories, including critical ones, its fundamental critique demands nothing less than a ‘paradigm’ shift.
