Capitalism, confucianism and Weberian theory: empirical reflections on the South-Korean case

ABSTRACT

During the last four decades, South Korea has experienced remarkable economic growth. In the early 20^th century, however, it was hard to project the integration of this region to the capitalist civilization. Max Weber, pioneer in the analysis of the obstructions to capitalist development in the "Confucian Asia", doubted of the endogenous flourishing of capitalism in those longitudes. More recently, his comments have been re-discussed, leading to the emergency of a new Weberian agenda about the diffusion of capitalism to the East. Hence, this article aims: (a) to recover Weber's comments; (b) to visit this proposal of neo-Weberian analysis concerning a "new Confucian Ethics"; and (c) to illustrate the feasibility of that agenda with two cases observed in South Korea.

Keywords:
Max Weber; Industrialization; South Korea; Confucianism; Development