Institutional Change in North Korean Economic Development Since 1984: The Competition Between Hegemonic and Non-hegemonic Rules and Norms

Abstract

This paper examines North Korean economic and policy changes since 1984 from an institutional perspective by focusing on the following four critical junctures: the Law of the Management of Joint Ventures in 1984; the policy of special economic zones in 1991; the mass starvation from 1995 to 1998; and the Economic Improvement. Measures in 2002. How did broad situational change play a role in the North Korean government's policy changes and how did the policy changes contribute to institutional change in the North? Were there any policy conflicts among the North Korean elite? How did power struggles among the elite influence policy outcomes? The paper argues that a specific institutional area's arrangement is broadly divided into two categories of rules and norms: one set of hegemonic and several sets of non-hegemonic rules and norms. The hegemonic rules and norms define the main features of an institutional order. Each set of non-hegemonic rules and norms compete with the hegemonic for the dominant status in institutional settings. This competition between hegemonic and non-hegemonic rules and norms functions as the medium of institutional development. Since 1984, the contention between hegemonic socialist and non-hegemonic capitalist rules and norms has defined economic institutional change in North Korea.