But sure, tell me how South Korea’s greatest periods of growth were definitely under the periods of dictatorship and military junta and not the democratic period that resulted in reaction to that.
[context: 1963 and onwards] Top priority was placed on the growth of a self-reliant economy and modernization; “Development First, Unification Later” became the slogan of the times and the economy grew rapidly with vast improvement in industrial structure, especially in the basic and heavy chemical industries. Capital was needed for such development, so the Park regime used the influx of foreign aid from Japan and the United States to provide loans to export businesses, with preferential treatment in obtaining low-interest bank loans and tax benefits.
During the past half-century, the Republic of Korea’s economy has shown impressive growth, with average annual GDP growth rate surpassing 7.1%, raising the level of real per capita GDP in international prices almost 26 times (Table 1). Average GDP growth rates accelerated to 7.5% in the 1960s, 8.6% in the 1970s, and 9.3% in the 1980s
The Republic of Korea has had a remarkable economic performance since the early 1960s, achieving per capita income of $27,000 to become the world’s eighth-largest trading nation.1 However, the economy’s recent growth performance has been rather disappointing. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged only 4.1% during 2000–2010, marking a significant drop from the average of 7.9% achieved during
1960–2000. Moreover, from 2011 to 2015, the Republic of Korea’s GDP growth averaged only 3.0%
So you’re choosing to cherrypick a few decades of comparably similar growth (2 points percentage difference), growth was relatively stable since the 60s as I said.
Source? I’m finding historic yearly relative GDP growth for South Korea to be more or less stable since the 60s, proving that the policy of the authoritarian period worked and established an industry that allowed the country to grow and continue growing. Even the Wikipedia article on the history of South Korea acknowledges this, in my understanding it’s relatively common knowledge:
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/183353/adbi-wp571.pdf
Still no response for North Korea’s fantastic workers’ rights and democratic institutions, huh?
From your own source:
So you’re choosing to cherrypick a few decades of comparably similar growth (2 points percentage difference), growth was relatively stable since the 60s as I said.