Suchergebnisse

Dense informal networks between public- and private-sector elites have long been identified as a key institutional feature that had underpinned rapid economic development in many East Asian countries. With the outbreak of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, however, a number of scholars have cast doubt on the long-term efficacy of informal networks, discrediting the East Asian model as crony capitalism. Although these debates renewed our interests in the role of informal networks in East Asia, they fall short of highlighting the real dynamics underlying informal networks. Parachute appointment in Korea - political appointment of ex-politicians and ex-bureaucrats into public and private corporations - is a prime example demonstrating political intervention in the formation and management of informal networks.We argue that the nature of political competition in Korea is a key to understanding the underlying dynamics of informal networks. First, Korean politicians, the president and the ruling party have actively engaged in making and maintaining the networks of parachute appointment. Second, owing to its politicized nature, parachute appointment is neither institutionalized nor stably managed. In the current highly uncertain political and economic situation, both public and private corporations have actively embraced parachute appointment as a means of fortifying external networking with the incoming political leadership. (Pac Rev/GIGA)

Japan's domestic politics in 2022, though immensely shocked by Abe's assassination, continued as usual without major changes from 2021. The LDP–Komeito coalition prevails, and opposition coalitions failed to prevent it from dominating. Although the Japanese economy is recovering from COVID-19 with increasing consumption, the recovery rate is slower than expected. The Japanese economy suffered both internally and externally in 2022. While adhering to the principle of exclusive self-defense under the US–Japan Security Treaty, the Kishida government is trying to improve deterrence with a new security strategy focusing on strengthening its counterstrike capability.

"This book analyzes the transformation of Korean political economy since the 1990s. In the wake of the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the political economy of South Korea has evolved around two diametrically opposed features: convergence into the Anglo-American model and the state-led strategic restructuring of industries. To unravel the peculiar nature of the political economy in Korea, the authors first identify major factors that contributed to the dual dynamics of change and continuity in Korea: external pressures, ideological shift in political leadership, and the pivotal role of the Korean government. Next, they examine the way in which these factors interacted with each other to reshape the evolutionary path of the Korean political economy. Using several case studies, the authors take us through the stages of this transformation, from the reform of the chaebols to the industrial restructuring of the auto, IT, and aerospace industries to the rise of South Korea's Free Trade Agreements (FTA) initiative. In explaining the role that the dual dynamics of change and continuity play in modern Korean political economy, this book makesan important contribution to the existingliterature and will be of interest to scholars and policy-makers concerned with development in Korea and the Asia-Pacific.​"--

The hierarchical economic relationship between Korea and Japan has gradually unraveled since mid-1980 as Korea began to build a competitive economic structure. The emergence of new policy ideas and development strategies in Korea was pivotal in bringing about this dramatic turnaround.