Democracy versus authoritarian: a comparative study on the political impact on ICT development in South Korea and Singapore

This research paper focuses on the state-market relationship and examines the political conditions important for economic development and innovation in the context of ICT development in South Korea and Singapore. Both Asian countries are models for successful economic development in the late 20th century, so-called the ‘Asian Miracle’, and the strong and autocratic leadership of the states supported this achievement. In the 1987 of the June democratic struggle, South Korea shifted to democracy, whereas Singapore has not undergone a similar political change. Although both states have followed different political paths since then, they have both maintained high levels of global economic development, particularly in the ICT sector. This paper considers how this happened. The central question to explore here is why different political paths can still lead to the similar economic outcome in the ICT sector. This study focuses on the political intervention behind high ICT development and discovers that despite their different political trajectory of regimes and freedom degree, the two states share common features of their political systems and state interventions. Both countries shared a combination of embedded autonomy and an entrepreneurial state in ICT development, which stresses the autonomy and leading role of the state while emphasizing the balance with the market. This case study on two contrasting political paths highlights the political conditions that promote growth and innovation, as well as the role and necessary capacity of the state in this process. The key political factor in economic growth is not the political system or the degree of freedom, rather the state's ability to play a leading role in growth strategies, to design and implement strategies that consider the long-term interests of the whole, and to strike a balance between market intervention and non-intervention. Both Korea and Singapore have demonstrated in their ICT strategies that they are ‘Entrepreneurial States with Embedded Autonomy’ possessing these capacities.