Korean Society: Civil Society, Democracy and the State, 2nd Edition (Asia's Transformations)

225 Pages·2006·1.31 MB·English

by  Charles K. Armstrong

Korean Society
Citizens’ groups and social movements have been crucial in transforming
South Korea from a military authoritarian regime to one of the most dynamic
democracies in Asia. Taking the innovative theme of ‘civil society’ – voluntary
organizations outside the role of the state which have participated in the process
of political and social democratization – the essays collected here examine Korea
as one of the most dramatic cases in the world of ordinary citizens participating in
the transformation of politics.
Topics include:
• comparisons of Korean democratization with the experiences of post-
authoritarian regimes elsewhere in the world;
• the legacy of Korea’s Confucian past for contemporary politics and
society;
• close examinations of various civil society movements, including the labor
movement, the student movement, the women’s movement and religious
organization;
• the possibilities for political change and the emergence of civil society in
North Korea.
Including both new and revised material, this second edition remains conceptually
innovative, topical and fully up to date, providing an interdisciplinary study that
will be an invaluable resource for students of contemporary Korea, Asian politics
and society.
Charles K. Armstrong is Associate Professor of History and Director of the
Center for Korean Research at Columbia University, New York.
Asia’s Transformations
Edited by Mark Selden
Binghamton and Cornell Universities, USA
The books in this series explore the political, social, economic and cultural
consequences of Asia’s transformations in the twentieth and twenty-fi rst centuries.
The series emphasizes the tumultuous interplay of local, national, regional and
global forces as Asia bids to become the hub of the world economy. While
focusing on the contemporary, it also looks back to analyse the antecedents of
Asia’s contested rise. This series comprises several strands:
Asia’s Transformations aims to address the needs of students and teachers, and
the titles will be published in hardback and paperback. Titles include:
Debating Human Rights Korean Society, 2nd edition
Critical essays from the United States Civil society, democracy and the state
and Asia Edited by Charles K. Armstrong
Edited by Peter Van Ness
The Making of Modern Korea
Hong Kong’s History Adrian Buzo
State and society under colonial rule
Edited by Tak-Wing Ngo The Resurgence of East Asia
500, 150 and 50 year perspectives
Japan’s Comfort Women Edited by Giovanni Arrighi, Takeshi
Sexual slavery and prostitution during Hamashita and Mark Selden
World War II and the US occupation
Yuki Tanaka Chinese Society, 2nd edition
Change, confl ict and resistance
Opium, Empire and the Global Edited by Elizabeth J. Perry and
Political Economy Mark Selden
Carl A. Trocki
Ethnicity in Asia
Chinese Society Edited by Colin Mackerras
Change, confl ict and resistance
Edited by Elizabeth J. Perry and The Battle for Asia
Mark Selden From decolonization to globalization
Mark T. Berger
Mao’s Children in the New China
Voices from the Red Guard generation State and Society in 21st Century
Yarong Jiang and David Ashley China
Edited by Peter Hays Gries and
Remaking the Chinese State Stanley Rosen
Strategies, society and security
Edited by Chien-min Chao and Japan’s Quiet Transformation
Bruce J. Dickson Social change and civil society in the
21st century
Jeff Kingston
Confronting the Bush Doctrine The Future of US–Korean Relations
Critical views from the Asia–Pacifi c The imbalance of power
Edited by Mel Gurtov and Edited by John Feffer
Peter Van Ness
Working in China
China in War and Revolution, Ethnographies of labor and workplace
1895–1949 transformation
Peter Zarrow Edited by Ching Kwan Lee
Asia’s Great Cities. Each volume aims to capture the heartbeat of the contemporary
city from multiple perspectives emblematic of the authors’ own deep familiarity
with the distinctive faces of the city, its history, society, culture, politics and
economics, and its evolving position in national, regional and global frameworks.
While most volumes emphasize urban developments since the Second World
War, some pay close attention to the legacy of the longue durée in shaping
the contemporary. Thematic and comparative volumes address such themes as
urbanization, economic and fi nancial linkages, architecture and space, wealth
and power, gendered relationships, planning and anarchy, and ethnographies in
national and regional perspective. Titles include:
Bangkok Hong Kong
Place, practice and representation Global city
Marc Askew Stephen Chiu and Tai-Lok Lui
Beijing in the Modern World Representing Calcutta
David Strand and Madeline Yue Dong Modernity, nationalism and the
colonial uncanny
Shanghai Swati Chattopadhyay
Global city
Jeff Wasserstrom Singapore
Wealth, power and the culture of
control
Carl A. Trocki
Asia.com is a series which focuses on the ways in which new information and
communication technologies are infl uencing politics, society and culture in Asia.
Titles include:
Japanese Cybercultures The Internet in Indonesia’s New
Edited by Mark McLelland and Democracy
Nanette Gottlieb David T. Hill and Krishna Sen
Asia.com Chinese Cyberspaces
Asia encounters the Internet Technological changes and political
Edited by K. C. Ho, Randolph Kluver effects
and Kenneth C. C. Yang Edited by Jens Damm and
Simona Thomas
Literature and Society is a series that seeks to demonstrate the ways in which
Asian Literature is infl uenced by the politics, society and culture in which it is
produced. Titles include:
The Body in Postwar Japanese Chinese Women Writers and the
Fiction Feminist Imagination, 1905–1948
Edited by Douglas N. Slaymaker Haiping Yan
Routledge Studies in Asia’s Transformations is a forum for innovative new
research intended for a high-level specialist readership, and the titles will be
available in hardback only. Titles include:
1 The American Occupation of 8 Developmental Dilemmas
Japan and Okinawa* Land reform and institutional
Literature and memory change in China
Michael Molasky Edited by Peter Ho
2 Koreans in Japan* 9 Genders, Transgenders and
Critical voices from the margin Sexualities in Japan
Edited by Sonia Ryang Edited by Mark McLelland and
Romit Dasgupta
3 Internationalizing the Pacifi c
The United States, Japan and the 10 Fertility, Family Planning and
Institute of Pacifi c Relations in Population Policy in China
war and peace, 1919–1945 Edited by Dudley L. Poston,
Tomoko Akami Che-Fu Lee, Chiung-Fang Chang,
Sherry L. McKibben and
4 Imperialism in South East Asia Carol S. Walther
A fl eeting, passing phase
Nicholas Tarling 11 Japanese Diasporas
Unsung pasts, confl icting presents
5 Chinese Media, Global Contexts and uncertain futures
Edited by Chin-Chuan Lee Edited by Nobuko Adachi
6 Remaking Citizenship in Hong 12 How China Works
Kong Perspectives on the twentieth-
Community, nation and the century industrial workplace
global city Edited by Jacob Eyferth
Edited by Agnes S. Ku and
Ngai Pun 13 Remolding and Resistance
among Writers of the Chinese
7 Japanese Industrial Governance Prison Camp
Protectionism and the licensing Disciplined and published
state Edited by Philip F. Williams and
Yul Sohn Yenna Wu
14 Popular Culture, Globalization 15 medi@sia
and Japan Global media/tion in and out of
Edited by Matthew Allen and context
Rumi Sakamoto Edited by Todd Joseph Miles
Holden and Timothy J. Scrase
* Now available in paperback
Critical Asian Scholarship is a series intended to showcase the most important
individual contributions to scholarship in Asian Studies. Each of the volumes
presents a leading Asian scholar addressing themes that are central to his or her
most signifi cant and lasting contribution to Asian studies. The series is committed
to the rich variety of research and writing on Asia, and is not restricted to any
particular discipline, theoretical approach or geographical expertise.
Southeast Asia China’s Past, China’s Future
A testament Energy, food, environment
George McT. Kahin Vaclav Smil
Women and the Family in Chinese The Chinese State in Ming Society
History Timothy Brook
Patricia Buckley Ebrey
China Unbound
Evolving perspectives on the
Chinese past
Paul A. Cohen

Korean Society
Civil society, democracy and the state
Second Edition
Edited by Charles K. Armstrong
First published 2002 by Routledge
This second edition fi rst published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2007 Charles K. Armstrong for selection and editorial matter,
contributors their chapters
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Korean society : civil society, democracy and the state / edited by
Charles K. Armstrong. – 2nd ed.
p. cm. – (Asia’s transformations)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Civil society – Korea (South) 2. Democracy – Korea (South)
3. Democratization – Korea (South) 4. Korea (South) – Politics and
government – 1988– I. Armstrong, Charles K. II. Series.
JQ1729.A15K68 2006
300.95195–dc22 2006014584
ISBN 0-203-96664-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–77057–2 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–77058–0 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–96664–3 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–77057–6 (hbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–77058–3 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–96664–8 (ebk)
Contents
List of contributors xi
Introduction 1
CHARLES K. ARMSTRONG
1 Civil society in West and East 9
BRUCE CUMINGS
2 The problematic modernity of Confucianism: the question
of “civil society” in Chosŏn dynasty Korea 33
JOHN DUNCAN
3 Civil society and democratization in South Korea 53
SUNHYUK KIM
4 Engendering civil society: the role of the labor movement 73
HAGEN KOO
5 The South Korean student movement: undongkwŏn as a
counterpublic sphere 95
NAMHEE LEE
6 Women and civil society in South Korea 121
SEUNGSOOK MOON
7 Commemorating Kwangju: the 5.18 movement and civil
society at the millennium 145
LINDA S. LEWIS