Korea: Time, Change, and Administration

Time-worn images of Korea as “a war-torn country” or “a divided land” are transformed here by a Korean who is deeply aware of his country's long history and is deeply involved in her modernization. Admitting that few countries have experienced more profound or puzzling transpositions in the last two decades, Mr. Lee maintains that few have Korea’s hope of becoming a truly modern nation.
Highlighting social and political transitions since 1945, and interrelating administrative measures taken during the period, the author introduces a “time-orientation approach” to administration, a theoretical framework of his own design, which stresses administrators’ time and attitude preferences in meeting social change.
The author is an exceptional scholar official. Although he began his career in the munities, the mature reflections in this book were made following graduate work in business administration at Harvard. Through four rapidly changing administrations and two revolutions he has served the Korean government as budget director, vice minister of finance, ambassador to Switzerland, Austria, the European Economic Community, and minister to the Vatican.