Neoliberalism and the decline of the developmental state

Since the 1980s, the Korean state has witnessed significant challenges from big business (chaebol) as well as from organized labor and popular sector. Regime transition has influenced the social and political relations between the state and big business. Thus the central argument is therefore that the developmental state has gradually eroded as the power and capability of the developmental slate was increasingly affected by economic liberalization and political democratization. At the same time the stare and big business are increasingly connected within more institutionalized networks. The argument will be advanced that the traditional relationship between the state and big business, which was characterized as one of state domination and the subordination of big business, has been changing more radically than the statist analysts presumed.