Much of the scholarship about Park Chung Hee and South Korea's developmental state has focused on economic modernization. This talk complements that literature by highlighting the long-lasting legacies of authoritarianism for the political and social development of South Korean society. The talk first covers the consequences of dictatorship for the evolution of civil society. We then shift to the historical origins of the demographic crisis South Korea is facing today. The central purpose of the talk is to show how both civil society and family change were shaped profoundly by authoritarian policies during the Park Chung Hee era.

Speaker: Paul Y. Chang, Senior Fellow Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; Tong Yang, Korea Foundation, and Korea Stanford Alumni Association Senior Fellow at Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University