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This study attempts to derive a theory of Saemaul Undong(SMU) by identifying its key success factors and to discover itspolicy implications for economic development. The proposed theoryargues that the success of the SMU was fundamentally driven bythe government’s strong adherence to the economic discrimination(ED) principle of “rewarding high performance and penalizing lowperformance,” which is the basic function of the market. ED is thegrand principle behind the success of the SMU. This study drawsupon detailed historical and personal accounts about how theSMU was implemented by former President Park Chung Hee toshow how faithful the SMU was to the ED principle. In addition,the study provides a new empirical model to estimate the effect of the SMU on economic growth and shows that the SMU had been asignificant contributor to Korea’s high growth performance duringthe 1970s. One of the main policy implications of the SMU is thatdevelopment and social policies should comply with the ED principleby preventing any political influence from working against the EDprinciple for the success and sustainability of those policies. Finally,the study argues that the SMU model provides an alternative orcomplementary perspective to the existing community developmentmodels.
