Military authoritarian regimes and economic development the ROK's economic take-off under Park Chung Hee

摘要

After WWII, several new countries were born, many of which came to have authoritarian regimes. The authoritarian regimes depressed civil liberties among their peoples, but in some cases, they contributed to their own democratization, ironically, by pursuing economic development. ROK President Park Chung Hee seized control of political power by coup in 1961. Until he was assassinated in 1979, he acted both as dictator of South Korea's political order and as the founder of South Korean economic take-off. This thesis first looks into how Park's administration accomplished economic development, unlike the preceding Rhee Syngman regime. This paper finds the intrinsic difference from the military bureaucracy and export-oriented industrialization. Also, as an extrinsic difference, special demands from the Vietnam War are discussed. The United States fully participated in the Vietnam War during the period of Park's regime. The economic effect gained from South Korea's participation in the Vietnam War absolutely influenced on the export-oriented economic growth policy implemented by the Park's administration. Then, this thesis assesses differences of both countries by comparing Park's regime to Pinochet's regime in Chile. Both regimes were military governments, but South Korea implemented economic development with powerful intervention, and Chile fulfilled economic reform with free markets. I examine what brought these two countries to take different ways of national economic policy.