Globalization, the developmental state and the politics of urban growth in korea: A multilevel analysis

This article explores the politics of urban growth in a transitional society. Korea, which is experiencing rapid industrialization, urbanization anddemocratic transition exemplifies a set of conditions that may seem to favor the emergence of an urban growth politics and business-led growth coalition much like that found in urban areas at the time of industrialization, and still prevalent in much of the US and other western democracies today. Yet our multilevel case analyses show that the transformations in Korea as a late industrializer, late democratizer and late adopter of urban policy have helped to consolidate more restricted policies toward urban growth than in the US or much of Europe. Multilevel analysis that highlights dynamics at global and national as well as local levels illuminates why the growth politics of a transitional society like Korea resembles as well as differs from that of older industrialized democracies.