The State, Class and Developmentalism in South Korea Development as Fetish

Presenting a thorough and comprehensive critical assessment of the extant approaches and theories of the Korean developmental state in particular, this book demonstrates that the existing literature, including Marxist critiques, only inadequately and partially challenge statism. It examines how statism reinforces and is reinforced by 'Third World Developmentalism', the idea that 'development' is in itself a positive goal and that a nationally autonomous mode of development should be promoted as a means of empowerment. In opposition, this book offers a critique of statism by constructing an alternative theoretical framework, extending Marx's concept of commodity fetishism to state-society and national-global relations.
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