Comparing Industrialization and Informatization in South Korea: Role of the State Revisited.

To South Korea, both industrialization and informatization are essentially the processes of integrating into the global market economy. Becoming a part of global market economy necessarily changes the status quo to which domestic political economic actors and systems have to adjust themselves. Located in-between the international and domestic political economies, the state will try to reduce any negative effects, and/or to maximize potential benefits of this integrating process. The role played by the state in this process is what I call ?the state as a buffer? between domestic and international political economies. It is called ?buffering? because of two reasons. First, the state basically ?buffers? the impacts from outside world upon its national economy and society. Second, structural adjustments on the part of domestic political economy to the changing outside world requires quite a long time, which may be comparable to the process of buffering in computers and networks to outside signals and inputs. The speed, scope, and outcome of ?buffering? may vary from country to country according to such variables as the capacity and autonomy of the state, the nature and impacts of global factors upon domestic political economy and vice versa, domestic and international political economic structures, the legacy of state intervention into economy and society, the accessibility and capabilities of IT networks and industries, and so on. By comparing industrialization and informatization in Korea, this paper will try to explain the structural, institutional, and functional conditions of a specific type of ?the buffer state? as shown in Korea in the era of the knowledge-based global economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]