Political Economy of Labour Reforms in South Korea

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Political Economy of Labour Reforms in South Korea

Journal Title: International Journal of Interdisciplinary and Multidisciplinary Studies (IJIMS) - Year 2014, Vol 1, Issue 5

Abstract

The research is an attempt to make a study on the condition of the labour, and its struggle through mobilisation in the welfare for them. It is about Republic of Korea under the suppressive industrial regime provided by the authoritarian polity of the State respectively. The study focuses on the post crisis 1997, of the Tripartite Agreement between the State, Business Groups known as „Chaebol‟ and Worker‟s Group or Trade union in Republic of South Korea. The research covers a period of ten years i.e. 1997 to 2007 during which significant changes occurred in the Korean Labour Movement. The selection of group and the period in South Korea for study is not without significance.The political economy of labour in South Korea is significant as it demystifies in the sense that is to show the illusion behind raising as one of the Asian Tigers in the post war period and a result a Tripartite Agreement w. The crisis broke the shades of authoritarian rule, rapid industrialization and compressed modernization in the post developmental state following the„flying geese paradigm‟ as proposed by Japanese political scientist „Kaname Akamatsu‟. The dissertation treats the space of labour with the State financial instability and the business groups‟ inefficiency, to provide structural reforms and tackle the problem of unemployment, low wages, bad and tight working hours, meager welfare scheme.The research is primarily based on long driven demand of Labour in the authoritarian regime after the Japanese colonization and its long struggle for reforms and democracy with the state and the strong „chaebol‟ in the post developmental state. The research starts with the introductory not on why, how and gravity of the topic is valuable for research. It presents with the ideological framework of Marxist and Pluralist approach applied to study the industrial progress and suppression of labour. The historical summation of labour movement and demand for democracy in the authoritarian led industrial phase, which was seen to be more violent, as was annihilated by the state. The research significantly presents the political economy of labour, which characterizes the labour movements with the financial crisis, to the international factors like support of USA and cold war period agenda. It also gives the account of legal framework for labour and ideological contradiction between the state and the labour. The research deals with the understanding of „tripartite commission‟ formed its political and economic integration with the movement of labour. Finally, the topic concludes how South Korean‟s authoritarian rule created „crony capitalism‟ with the weak fundamentalism and weak regulatory mechanism. The bubble burst which onsets the financial crisis of 1997 marks the new beginning with Roh Tae Woo government mark the new beginning for democratic government and labour reforms in South Korea. The violent trade union movement against the economic turmoil created difficulties to the State policy implementation. The period of 1997 to 2007 was crucial for South Korea as; it has been through the worst phase of development, looking for help to alleviate from its problem, thereby initializing more radical democracy and structural reforms. The restoration of democracy gives the political stability and labour reforms leads to trade union mobilization of labour in every respect.

Authors and Affiliations

Amit Singh

Keywords

Political Economy Labour Reforms South Kore

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EP ID EP30614
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