Twenty years after South Korea began democratization
in 1987, Korean democracy today is most distinctive in terms of the role of
civil society and can be characterized as a citizen-centered democracy. The
mushrooming of civil movement groups under the democratic governments of Kim
Young-sam (1993-1998) and Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) was so far-reaching that
they built a “state-NGO nexus” before they
surged as a hegemonic force of the Roh Moo-hyun government’s “participatory
democracy”. Although South Korea’s citizen-centered democracy by
movement is far from having completed democratic consolidation and public cynicism
toward it has led to the resurgence of the conservatives, the role of civil
society in South Korea’s democracy remains strong. South Korea’s
citizen-centered democracy has inspired many civil society movement leaders
in neighboring countries to adopt relevant lessons for their own democratization
movements. Yet little is known about South Korea’s citizen-centered democracy,
a better understanding of which is given added importance by the escalating
tensions in East Asia, especially because of security issues surrounding North
Korea and rapidly changing global politics and socio-economic environments.
This panel examines the character of South Korea’s civil society movement,
particularly as illustrated in the “anti-candidate movement” and
the identity of the leading force of South Korea’s civil society movements
following democratization.
Youngmi Kim, University of Edinburgh
The expanding growth of NGOs and more broadly civil society groups in South
Korea has been one of the most significant events since democratization.
During the Kim Dae-jung administration, civil society played a crucial role
in shaping not only political life (which is well accepted in the literature)
but also in affecting the country’s governability. In 2000, NGOs and other political
actors in civil society embarked on an anti-candidate campaign and established
an “anti-candidate” movement against the candidates allegedly involved
in political corruption before the general elections, although the extent to
which the groups were spontaneous representation of the “people’s
will” or simply manipulated by the government remains open to question.
The movement was viewed as indicative of a good democratic process by the president
and some of the core members of the administration, who themselves used to be
members of civil organizations. Apart from wide support from the people and
successful performance in the electoral results, NGOs could not remain free
of the accusation of not being impartial. The NGOs’ role influenced the
first coalition break-up in 2000 between the ruling coalition parties. The
paper discusses how the NGOs played a crucial political role before the general
election and what impact they had on coalition governments, causing inter- and
intra-party conflicts in the legislature. The paper asks why NGOs came under
increasing attack from the conservative opposition and the legitimacy blow they
received.
Marie-Orange Rive-Lasan, Center d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
During the general elections of 2000 and 2004, civil movements organizations
broad alliances have played a crucial political role by influencing the choice
of voters. The two anti-candidate campaigns and “anti-candidate” movements
against the inefficiency and corruption of the candidates before the general
elections had apparently good results as 59 out of 86 candidates put on the
black list were not elected in 2000, and 129 out of 206 were not elected
in 2004. Benefiting from a quasi government approval, the movement consequences
are huge, both in influencing the recruitment of new politicians and giving
a dynamic to the public opinion, but also in term of political professionalism.
The question of political heredity is raised in order to compare the young
South Korean democracy and the oldest Asian democracies where the patrimonialisation
of elected functions phenomena are often a sign of good political professionalism.
Are the anti-candidate movements have taken into account any political family
professionalism aspect when targeting candidates? Was the political heredity
a matter of concern for NGOs' leaders?
Antonio Fiori, University of Bologna
Social Security – as all other welfare measures – was highly underdeveloped
during the authoritarian regimes, when economic growth constituted the main
objective, while welfare measures were nothing more than a tool for acquiring
political legitimation and social support in times of crises. The restoration
of parliamentary democracy in 1987 opened a new era in the political and social
life of the country. The 1997-8 financial crisis and the consequent recession,
however, brought a great social impact. In order to cope with the problems of
soaring unemployment and poverty, the newly-elected Kim Dae-jung government
decided to give absolute priority to the modernization of the social security
system. In 1999 a new social welfare law – the National Basic Livelihood
Security Act (NBLS Act) – was enacted in order to secure minimum living
standards for those eligible regardless of their age and ability to work. This
paper analyses the policy-making process of the NBLS Act by focusing on the
crucial role played by NGOs in general and PSPD (People’s Solidarity for
Participatory Democracy), in particular, as policy entrepreneurs. The enactment
of NBLS Act, in fact, efficiently shows how civil society organizations acted
as main driving forces behind the reform of social assistance in Korea. In
doing this, the paper also aims to show how political and economic change constituted
a window of opportunity for the reform of social assistance.
Hyung-a Kim, Australian National University
The civil society movement groups that have proliferated since 1988, led
primarily by middle-class citizens, such as white-collar workers, intellectuals,
professionals and religious leaders, quickly rose as the leading force behind
South Korea’s democratic consolidation. Their activities, especially after
1995, were encouraged by President Kim Young-sam’s globalization “Segyehwa” policy,
which set a new precedent in the way the government worked closely with citizens’ groups
while also recruiting many prominent members of these groups as advisors to
the president or as top-ranking officials in the government. After 1998, under
the Kim Dae-jung Administration, citizens’ movement groups as a political
force not only influenced government policy-making as a pressure group, but
also participated in President Kim’s neo-liberal reforms, representing
a new democracy focused on the citizenry with anti-authoritarian and anti-chaebol
principles. In this context, the Roh Moo-hyun Administration’s self-identity
of “Participatory Government” epitomizes the character of citizen-centered
democracy in today’s South Korea, although the Roh government contradicted
its own anti-chaebol principle. Moreover, citizen-centered democracy did not
mean the completion of democratic consolidation any more than “non-governmental” civil
movements guarantee they will work in favor of the marginalized and disadvantaged.
In view of this situation, this paper examines the identity of civil movement
groups involved in South Korea’s democratic causes after 1988, with a
special focus on the two leading groups, CCEJ and PSPD.
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