Democratization and the Capitalist Class in South Korea

Democratization and the Capitalist Class in South Korea

Focusing on chaebols, this paper explores the roles of the capitalist class in the transition from authoritarianism to democracy in South Korea, Unlike Western capitalists, Korean capitalists nurtured by the state played a detrimental role in the transition from authoritarianism to democracy by exercising their economic power based on capital. Ironically democratization empowered capitalists as well as workers as the authoritarian state became weaker. Democratization in Korea has not been fully achieved yet and has generated the contentious politics among the state, capital and labor. The economic crisis of 1997 significantly damaged the power of capitalists and increased the autonomy of the state from the capitalist class. But the resurgence of the state does not guarantee consolidation of democracy since the legacy of the authoritarian state is strongly preserved in the state apparatus.