Dependency, Marxist Theory, and Salvaging the Idea of Capitalism in South Korea

Abstract

This paper presents a critique of dependency theorists' claim that South Korea has been unable to successfully develop capitalism. My major contention is that South Korea has experienced successful captialist industrialization while at the same time being dependent on foreign capital. The first part of the paper provided empirical proof of the fallacy of the dependency claim. In the second part the shortcomings of dependency theory are discussed showing the inadequacy of such theory to an understanding of Korea or the rise of capitalism in general. The third part of the paper survey's Korea's history from within a more explicitly Marxist framework showing present-day Korea to be the product of the complex interplay of class and other historical forces.