Authors: Tae Hwan Yoo, Jong Hyun Park, Sung Hee Kim, Sang Ho Lee

Date of Publication: October 20, 2008

Publisher: Humanitas

Korean Economics in the Era of Polarization: Evaluation on the Roh Moo-Hyun Government’s Economic Policies

The traces of Roh Moo-hyun government remain in Lee Myung-Bak government regardless of factual matter of ‘political power transfer,’ in respect to policies or its effects. In the field of social and economic policies, these two regimes seem to have only a small difference. It is not easy to tie up Roh’s regime with a unified system or frame due to contradicted and chaotic policies which can be described as ‘turning right with the left-turn signal light’ or ‘Leftists’ Neoliberalism.’ However, the polarized policies resulted a clear outcome.

This book defines Roh Moo-Hyun regime as ‘polarized era’ and chooses foreign trade policy, monetary policy, labor policy, and pension policy as the key terminologies that best describe the features of Roh regime. With these four features as a center, the book analyzes the reasons for polarization and its process. Through such analysis, the authors reveal the features and limitation of social-economics in the era of Roh regime, and further up, seek a better direction and Korean economic system.

This book will offer an answer for the readers on the puzzlement of why and for what reason did Roh government had to exclude participation and democratic rules despite the fact that it was a participatory and democratic government.