• #Economics and Finance
• #Politics and Public
• #Liberalism

This study argues that neoliberal economic policies in Korea were actively chosen due to domestic political needs, rather than passively adopted under external pressure. The stabilization policy of the early 1980s marked a transition from government-led growth-oriented economic policies to market-based stabilization policies, and the stability theory emerged as a new economic policy principle through an alliance with the military junta after the Busan-Masan and Gwangju uprisings. The study examines the competition and conflicts between growth-oriented and stability-oriented forces, revealing that these political transitions coincided with economic changes.