Marxist Perspectives on South Korea in the Global Economy

Martin Hart-Landsberg is Professor of Economics and Director of the Political Economy Program at Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, USA. He received his PhD from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He is the author of several books on the economy and politics of Northeast Asia, and his articles have appeared in numerous international peer-reviewed journals including Critical Asian Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Review of Radical Political Economics, Against the Current, and Historical Materialism. Seongjin Jeong is Professor of Economics and former Director of Institute for Social Sciences at Gyeongsang National University, South Korea. He received his PhD from Seoul National University and has written widely on Marxism and the Korean economy. His work has appeared in international peer-reviewed journals including Review of Radical Political Economics and Rethinking Marxism. He has also translated some major Marxist works into Korean. Richard Westra is Assistant Professor of political economy in the Division of International and Area Studies, Pukyong National University, South Korea. He received his PhD from Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, and has previously taught at the Royal Military College of Canada, the International Study Center, UK and the College of the Bahamas, Nassau. His work has appeared in numerous international peer-reviewed journals including Capital & Class, Review of International Political Economy, Journal of Contemporary Asia and Review of Radical Political Economics.

• Contents: Preface; Introduction; Marxist perspectives on South Korea in the global economy, Martin Hart-Landsberg, Seongjin Jeong and Richard Westra; Part 1 Marxian Method and South Korean Capitalism: Introduction; Trend of Marxian ratios in Korea: 1970-2003, Seongjin Jeong; Uneven development of the rates of surplus value: the case of South Korea, Dong-Min Rieu; State, market, and stages of capitalism in South Korean development, Richard Westra. Part 2 The South Korean Economy in Global Perspective: Introduction; China and the dynamics of transnational capital accumulation, Martin Hart-Landsberg and Paul Burkett; Changing patterns of accumulation and realization in East Asia since the 1990s, Joseph Halevi and Peter Kriesler. Part 3 The South Korean Economy in Historical Perspectives: Introduction; Land reform and capitalist development in Korea, Sang-Hwan Jang; A critical appraisal of the Park Chung Hee system, Soohaeng Kim and Seung-Ho Park. Part 4 The South Korean Economy into the Future: Introduction; The South Korean economy: problems and prospects, Martin Hart-Landsberg; When capital becomes society: the re-composition of capitalist work and new labor activism in Korea, Dae-oup Chang; Appendix: major political and economic events in Korea, 1945-2006; References; Index.

'The state centered approach to East Asian development made possible a decisive advance over neoclassical dogma in interpreting Korea’s high-speed growth, but could not itself cope with Korea’s great crisis and the enormous changes it detonated. This volume shows how Marxist theoretical perspectives on profitability, capital accumulation, and class struggle can enable a more all-encompassing historical account of Korea’s transformations, especially by analyzing government policy and economic institutions in terms of political conflict, the nature of workers’ resistance, and Korea’s changing place in the global economy.' Robert Brenner, UCLA, USA '...a critical examination of South Korea's past growth, recent crisis and contemporary resructuring, struggles and challenges.' Journal of Economic Literature '...I greatly appreciated the insightful readings of Korean capitalism and recommend this volume to anyone who is interested in the debate on the Asian developmental state.' Economic Geography