Hello, how are you? Last class we talked about overall history trajectory of Korean politics. Today we'll talk about very interesting apex of contemporary Korean politics. What we'll be talking about today is Democratic trandition in 1987. Prior to the analysis of democratic transition in 1987 let us briefly give a big picture of Korean politics. It is usually said that the Korean politics of the past have a full important legacies. First legacy, the legacy of authoritarianism. Here, authoritarianism has its origin in Confucian hierarchy and logical conformity. In the Rhee Dynasty or old Korean kingdoms, confucian ideology was the ruling ideology in which the king, the ultimate authority, exercised absolute power and authority. Therefore, logical conformity has been prevailing in Korean society. Another important legacy of authoritarianism is a dependency of Rhee's soft authoritarianism and Park's hard authoritarianism. It means Korean people have been socialized in such a way that authoritarianism is not rejected it but accepted as normal politics. Another important legacy is the legacy of a bureaucratic state. Obviously, bureaucratic state has its origin in Confucian past, but more importantly, Japanese colonial rule has left lasting impact on state structure in Korea. Japanese colonial government has created quite extensive network of monitoring and surveillance. And the colonial authority played the utmost control of the Korean people. But that tradition continued even after national independence. And obviously during the Japanese colonial authority, governor from Japan was like a king, therefore he exercised executive dominance. And as a result, civil society has been weak overall. The old legacy has something through with narrow ideological spectrum. Korea was divided. And then we had Korean War and communist North and democratic and liberal South, engaged in kinds of regional contestation since early 1950s. Then North Korea has the North Korean the looting organ was Korea Worker's party. Korea Worker's party main goal was to liberate the south from American imperialistic occupation through the union united front strategy. Therefore, South Korea had to respond to North Korea's offensive strategy. Therefore, South Korea adopted anti-communism law and also South Korea enacted the National Security Law. Okay, and that was anti-communism, has become one of the governing template of Korean society. Which in turn, fundamentally limited the scope of ideological maneuver. Communism, socialism, even social democracy wasn't allowed in Korean context. And progressive forces were completely excluded from Korean Rhee politics. Therefore there was just one ideology, anti-communist ideology. It was hegemonic ideology until there was a democratic opening in 1987. Finally, myth of revolution from above, okay? Park's when he pursued modernization strategy, he modeled after Meiji Restoration. He was greatly inspired by the Mustafa Kemal of Turkey, the founding father of contemporary Turkey. What we call it Kemalism. Kemalism, the first two ideologies relating to secularism. And industrialization and modernization and emulation of Western civilization. Park Chung-hee wanted to know, had the two motives, one was the Meiji Restoration, in other words, a Kamal Pasha, Kamal Pasha Kamalism of Turkey. Therefore, there was a very heavy emphasis on the role of political leadership. Therefore, really, if you look at the western world, look at United Kingdom. Industrial Revolution was a revolution from below, from market, from inventors. And it took almost 200 years for Great Britain to consolidate its democratic tradition, and economic growth and industrialization. In the case of South Korea, there was a compressed growth. In the name of modernization from above. But that has a kind of inspiring aspect of Korean society in the past. Therefore, there always is a kind of almost fanciful imagination of role of political leadership. Likewise, Korea, South Korea has all the important pre-requisites for authoritarian rule. Likewise, South Korean politics was endowed with four, you know, legacies, okay? The legacies of authoritarianism, the legacy of strong bureaucratic state, and the narrow ideological spectrum, and the miss of revolution from above. And all these four factors paved in a ground floor in the authoritarian rule and also sells when people the accepted the authoritarian rule as a thing South Koreans take for granted. Authoritarian rule as normal form of ruling government but there was a major and certain change in 1987. As you can see, South Korea was endowed with strong authoritarian tendencies but there was very sudden transition to democracy in 1987. And why democratization matters. Obviously, okay, it was end of protracted authoritarianism and transition to democracy. It was a kind of blessing for us. And also, there is another important factor. There is two tales of success story. A lot of people now talk about the South Korea has shown the two miracles. One is economic growth and industrialization, another is democratization. In reality it's not easy to satisfy those two mandates of economic growth and democracy. But South Korea has proved it. South Korea has proved that it has simultaneously accomplished economic goals and democracy. And also, another interesting case is this trade-off between national security and democracy. Country like South Korea, which faces acute military strength from North Korea. It might not easy to pursue democracy because we need a cultural security system. But again, but there was kind of logic which prevailed in 1970s. But again, since late 1980s, Korean people showed that that may not be necessarily the truth. National security can be assured while the country achieves democratization. Also the remaining topic is this. Now whether South Korea can continue a relatively stable democracy. If you look at the Latin American cases, if you look at the Middle Eastern cases, a lot of countries have shown the kind of democratic acceptance, and they went back to authoritarian rule. But in the case of South Korea, since 1987, even though there were ups and downs, South Korea was able to maintain relative stable democracy. Even all those four factors, I say democratization in South Korea deserves very close attention.
