Civilisational values and political economy beyond the West: The significance of Korean debates at the time of its economic opening
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Date
2017-12-06
Authors
Helleiner, Eric
Chey, Hyoung-kyu
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor and Francis
Abstract
This paper analyses the prominence of civilisational values in Korean political economy debates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries concerning their country’s dramatic opening to the world economy at the time. Korean supporters of economic opening saw this policy change as part of a wider embrace of Western civilisational values, while opponents argued that their country’s longstanding economic autarchy upheld traditional Neo-Confucian civilisational values that had been imported from China. For international political economy (IPE) scholars interested in the historical relationship between civilisational values and political economy, the analysis shows how these values shaped understandings of international economic relations outside the West in quite distinctive ways. For IPE scholars interested in the diffusion of ideas, the analysis highlights different dynamics involved in the ‘localisation’ of ideas emanating from dominant powers. More generally, the study of this Korean history also contributes to the building of a more ‘inter-civilisational’ approach to IPE today.
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Keywords
Korea, political economy, civilisation, Neo-Confucian, autarchy, localization