International Competitiveness and the Shifting Contours between State and Corporate Power

This chapter provides a discussion of the relationship between international competitiveness and the shifting contours between state and corporate power through a case study of Korean state-corporate power in terms of so-called chaebol governance. The chapter explores how the nature of industry has transformed state-corporate power relations. This will also investigate the question as to why Korean big business can be regarded as a political power rather than as a mere market agent. The chapter shows how Korean corporate power has emerged as the countervailing force against Korean state power. The first section provides a preliminary review of government-industry relations in the context of international competitiveness. The second section examines the shifting rationale of the relationship between the Korean government and the private sector. The third section comprises an account of why Korean state-corporate power relations have shifted significantly compared to the Japanese case. The chapter concludes by suggesting that under the pressure of globalisation, market power mainly originated by the Korean private sector gradually gives rise to economic power as well as political power in relation to public authority or state power.