The Political Consequences of the Asian Economic Crisis : the Case of South Korea

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This study analyzes the reform process of South Korea's capital-labor relations, which is necessary for overcoming the Asian Economic Crisis from 1997 on. First, this project tries to explore the causal relations between the Korean style of capital-labor relations and the economic crisis by getting the information from interviewing some members of the Tripartite Commission consisting of the labor, the capital, and government or political parties, and analyzing the published materials concerning the labor problems. Second, Focusing on the institutional and functional dynamics of both the committee for reforming the labor-management relations under the Kim Youngsam regime and the Tripartite Commission from the first term till the third term under the Kim Daejoong regime, this study tries to analyze the political dynamics among the labor unions, government party, and the chaebol owners' group. The Tripartite Commission has been organized to let the labor unions take some share in the poli … More cy decision-making process in exchange for making its movements more moderate. In a sense, It has been institutionalized to make societal corporatist mechanism take root in Korea. But its actual functions have been very difficult to be fulfilled. On the contrary Korean society is going rapidly along the neo-liberalist ideas without having adequate safety-net. You can know about the details of the process if you read the attached article which title is "the Economic Crisis and the 'Reform' of the Labor-Capital Relations' Regime in Korea."This research project has also analyzed the Korea's foreign policy around 1970, which gives some insights to the analysis of overcoming the economic crisis. Korean government needs to get the support of the governments of such other countries as US and Japan besides the domestic structural reform in order to overcome the crisis. Based on the archival analysis of the US and Korea's diplomatic documents concerning the Vietnam War and ASPAC (the Asia-Pacific Councils), this study abstracts three patterns of Korea's foreign policy according to the various purposes and means of the policy toward US, which are (1) adaptation (2) over-commitment (3) autonomy. The analysis provides very interesting suggestions about how to deal with US and Japan in comparison with the case of the Asian Economic crisis. In this study I have compared Korea's case with the Taiwan's case about their foreign policy late in 1960s. I will try to do more serious comparative study of Korea and Taiwan in overcoming the crisis. I have written an article of which title is 'Three Patterns of South Korea's Foreign Policy in 1960s.' The article will be published as one chapter of the book which is a product of the joint study of Korean and Japanese political scientists. Besides I will write another article of which title is 'The Comparative Study of the Korean and Taiwanese Foreign Policy in 1960s, ' and make its presentation in the International Conference sponsored by the PRONEA, Academia SINICA, Taiwan on March 23-34. Less