This books moves beyond narrow economic concerns to explore spheres of civil society which have been neglected in the literature on economic development. Each chapter highlights a distinct pattern of Korean modernization, and the book covers such topics as emerging classes, historical sources of political cleavages, institutional bases of development policies, the rise of the minjung movement, the hegemony problem of the new bourgeoisie, and conflicts over cultural construction. A chapter on the "hermit kingdom" of North Korea rounds out the book"s coverage of society and politics on the Korean perimeter.