Organizer: Judith A. Gillespie, State University of New York, Albany
Chair: Bong-Scuk Sohn, Center for Women and Politics, Seoul, Korea
Discussant: Oidov Oyuntsetseg, Women’s Information and Research Centre
This panel provides a comparative, interdisciplinary perspective on questions of how three key political and social movements interrelate in Asia with particular studies in Korea, Malaysia, and PR China. The first point is to assess democratization processes taking place in each of the countries and in Asia more generally. These processes will be compared and analyzed in terms of key ideas such as accountability, transparency, and particularly local elections. The overview paper will set the conceptual stage for the individual studies and compare and analyze findings across nations and transnationally. Each of the other three paper givers will assess national developments. The second point is to assess the development of civil societies, the meaning of civil societies today, and how these societies have undergone different development processes. The status and development of civil societies will be compared and analyzed in terms of key ideas involved in a joint project being carried out by the group called FemiNet Asia under the auspices of the Asia Foundation. The overview paper will take up the general questions of similarity and difference and utilize findings from the three countries. The individual country paper givers will provide an in depth national analysis. Finally, the group will take a particular look at how the information age has helped and hindered democratic development and the support for civil societies, in particular in the case of Asian women.
Links between democratization, the development of civil societies and the information age will be made in areas such as employment, political participation, and community activities.
Democracies, Civil Societies, and the Information Age in Asia: A Comparative Analysis
Judith A. Gillespie, State University of New York, Albany
This paper will provide the conceptual and comparative overview for a major project studying democratization processes, civil society development, and the use of information in Asia as typified by developments in Korea, Malaysia, and the People’s Republic of China. Information will also be brought forward from Mongolia. The paper traces four major types of democratization processes and how they can be applied or rejected in each of the countries involved in the study. A special focus will be placed on the institutionalization of democracy in the operation of national governments and the conduct of elections. These democratization processes are then put into a matrix showing various types of civil societies and their development. A discussion of the nature of civil society and significant differences across countries will be undertaken and data from the studies of each of the countries will be generally analyzed. Finally, the paper will take up the topic of the growth of information and its impact on both democratization and civil society. It will use the status of women as a case study of the impact of the interaction of these processes.
Democratic Norms and the Growth of Information in Malaysia
Wei Leng Loh, University of Malaysia; Rashila Ramli, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
This paper will discuss the development of democratic norms in Malaysia within the complex matrix of a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society with strong autocratic constraints. A full array of democratic norms from both East and West will be presented. The focus of the analysis of this paper is on the fit or lack thereof of some democratic norms to the Malaysian context. The large number of intersecting civil societies in Malaysia will be discussed with a special focus on the constraints and opportunities which are currently being created for civil society development. A significant case study will be utilized with the attempts of Mahathir to create the information corridor in Malaysia and its economic and political ramifications. The amazing growth of information and its effects will be analyzed particularly in relation to the employment and political participation of women and women’s NGOs.
The Growth of Civil Society and the Information Age in China
Mark A. Hoyt, University at Albany; JuFen Wang, Fudan University
This paper will begin with a discussion of the idea of civil society in the Chinese context and the similarities and differences of civil society development across Western and Asian countries. Major conceptual categories will be developed in order to fill out a fundamental outline of what civil society does look like currently and will look like in the future in China. From this standpoint, the types of democratization processes ongoing in modern China will be discussed. The result is a quite different looking view of civil society as a foundation for democracy. These ideas will then be analyzed in light of the information age and the status of information development in China. Finally the impact of these processes on women will be discussed, with particular reference to the case of Shanghai and the participation of the Shanghai Women’s Federation.
Contemplating Survivalist North Korea: Implications for Democracy and Civil Society in South Korea
Alvin Magid, State University of New York, Albany
The paper underlines that the starkness of the stalemated face-off between the two Koreas is not without redeeming value, for both the North and the South. It allows socialist juche Korea to enjoy confidence in the survivability of its sovereign independence and territorial integrity, along with its system attributes, for as long as it may take to achieve unification in the peninsula on the North’s terms—probably a very long time, if ever. And it affords South Korea welcome relief from having to shoulder most or all of the enormous economic burden which would likely be associated with unification—in effect, a steep surcharge against the South’s hard-won standard of living. Additionally, South Korea is spared a possibly high surcharge against its system of democratic constitutionalism and civil society, both also hard won. Largely unnoticed by the mass of ordinary South Koreans and the ‘political class’ in the country are the possible implications for the South’s democratic polity and civil society of a ‘hard landing’ by the North, resulting in precipitous unification.