Chaebolföretagen - en "omöjlig" konfiguration i den sydkoreanska industrialiseringsprocessen

Sammanfattning: The chaebol conglomerates, which constituted the backbone of the "South Korean miracle", became the instrument for economic growth within a framework laid down by the "developmental state". With a minimum of own capital, but with private owner-control and loan-financing, these chaebols were able to expand. How could this "impossible" configuration survive? The thesis analyses how this could continue up to the Asian crisis of 1997, and why South Korea, in spite of its stable growth and good economic prerequisites, could not make it through the crisis. The chaebol conglomerates are described from three perspectives, dating from the Chinese heritage and the Japanese occupation to the recovery after the Asian crisis. a) The macroeconomic prerequisites for industrialisation under the different regimes are discussed. b) The chaebols are examined and characterised generally. c) The development of three of the largest chaebols, Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo, are used to exemplify the "impossible" configuration in the South Korean industrialisation process. The author sees the "South Korean miracle" as a paradox with both continuity and discontinuity in the development. The era under President Park is considered an extension of the Japanese period. The liberalising and democratising processes, started in the 1980s, are seen as a prelude to a formative period, prior to the structural break in the economy and paradigm shift in the development of the chaebols after the 1997 Asian crisis.