Reinventing the industrial land use policy in democratized development states – A comparison of Taiwan and South Korea

In the post-WWII era, great economic success was achieved in countries that adopted, developmental state strategy, mainly because of their centralized administrative power, back then and top-down industrial development model. However, with democratization, taking place, central governments have gradually lost their dominance over industrial, development and this further affected their land use policies. In the case of Taiwan and South Korea, the development of national industrial parks was significantly declined after 1990, and both countries adjusted their spatial planning system in the new century to work with industrial land policy after democratization. Accordingly, this article compares the two countries to explore the policy transformation and discusses the probable reasons that make the different adjustment approaches two countries adopted. It is found that though both Taiwan and South Korea are thought as developmental states, the distinction of economic structures and the power relationships between spatial plans and sectoral policies have led to different planning model. Taiwan, embraces its National Spatial Plan as a platform for sectoral policy coordination, whilst South Korea’s 2002 Comprehensive National Territorial Plan gives directives to sectoral policy. In conclusion, this paper argues that a developmental state inevitably needs a certain degree alter of its industrial land use policy as democratization occurs, and the corresponding approaches of institutional adjustment may vary with state’s nature. The experience of these two Asian Tigers would serve as a good reference point for young developmental states, as they might experience the transformation of land use policy during democratization.