Developing Difference: Social Organization and the Rise of the Auto Industries of South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, and Argentina

Theories of economic development as diverse as modernization, dependency, world-system, and market reform take a “critical factor” view. Proponents of each theory argue that countries fail to develop because of an obstacle to economic growth. We argue instead that neither a critical factor nor a single path leads to economic development; viable paths vary. Economic growth depends on linking a country's historically developed patterns of social organization to the opportunities of global markets. We formulate a sociological theory of cross-national comparative advantage including not only economic factor endowments but also institutionalized patterns of authority and organization. Such patterns legitimize certain actors and certain relationships among those actors, which facilitate development success in some activities but not in others. We illustrate this approach to understanding development outcomes with a comparative analysis of the difficult rise of the automobile assembly and components industries in South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, and Argentina.