Mainland development policy in an autonomous subnational island jurisdiction: spatial development and economic dependence in Jeju, South Korea

This paper questions the appropriateness of island spatial development policies that are initiated and managed by mainland actors. Jeju is an autonomous subnational island jurisdiction (SNIJ) of South Korea. Over the past decades, Jeju has been developed as a tourist destination, international free city, and special economic zone as part of a spatial development policy led by South Korea’s central government. These developments have improved Jeju’s economy, but they have also rendered the island’s economy increasingly open, making the island vulnerable to external shocks, weakening its self-sufficiency, and occasioning cultural and social tensions. Jeju’s top-down economic and spatial development policy has led to a vicious cycle of accepting central government-led development policies, thereby decreasing the island’s de facto economic and political autonomy.