[KS] KSR 2000-14: _Korean Politics_, by John Kie-chiang Oh

[Stephen Epstein]

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_Korean Politics: The Quest for Democratization and Economic
Development_,
by John Kie-chiang Oh. Ithaca, N.Y. and London: Cornell University
Press,
1999. xii + 257 pages. ISBN 0-8014-3447-5..

Reviewed by Norman Thorpe
Whitworth College

[This review originally appeared in _Acta Koreana_ 3, (2000):179-182. 
_Acta Koreana_ is published by Academia Koreana of Keimyung University.]


How does a country that has no history of representative government, and
no philosophical foundation for it, establish a democracy? That is a
question that for four decades or more has fascinated Prof. John
Kie-chiang Oh, a Korean-born political scientist who teaches politics at
Catholic University of America. His earlier book, _Korea: Democracy on
Trial_ (Cornell University Press, 1968), also dealt with this topic. At
that time, Oh concluded that what South Koreans had been practicing
under the guise of democracy was far from it; and in light of Gen. Park
Chung Hee's then recent coup, he was hesitant to predict anything about
South Korea's political future.

Thirty years later, largely through the will of the people, South Korea
has cast off the generals who gripped control, and has conducted
peaceful transitions of power to two successive presidents with
non-military backgrounds, one of whom was a prominent opposition leader.
Going a step farther, Seoul even tried two of its former presidents for
usurping power as generals, and convicted them on charges of mutiny and
treason.

In his timely new book, Oh tracks the tumultuous events which brought
South Korea through this watershed change, beginning with the first
efforts to launch democratic government after Japanese rule ended in
1945, and ending with the IMF crisis and the beginning of the Kim
Dae-jung administration in early 1998. Woven into this penetrating
narrative is the story of South Korea's economic development, which has
been intertwined with Korean politics since the first efforts to
energize the economy began, and which is now undergoing reassessment and
realignment.

These are important subjects. Seoul's accomplishment in overthrowing
authoritarian rule and achieving representative government has made it a
model for other developing nations where some aspire for their country
to do likewise. And Korea's economy is an important model looked to by
countries seeking to improve their economic status. Much can be learned
from the Korean experience, both in politics and with the economy, where
the gains came at a cost.

One of the author's most salient points is how deeply Korea's economic
and political changes are related. One result of Korea's economic
development and its emphasis on education was the growth of a
substantial middle class, which became the most important force
demanding democratization in the sea-change year of 1987. Without the
economic foundation that contributed to that, the political transition
might not have occurred. Ironically, says Oh, "It is clear that the
educated middle class gradually acquired a liberal political orientation
even while presidents Park and Chun ruled the country as virtual
dictators" (70). In spite of the fact that it was the dictators'
policies that led economic growth, these beneficiaries of the growth
became anti-dictatorial.

Oh does not apply the Korean experience to any other settings, but the
events in Korea and some other states raise a question as to whether
economic gains and the growth of a middle class will eventually affect
political development in China and other such countries that are
pursuing modernization. One's view on that prospect could influence
whether, in the face of human rights issues in such countries, one
believes outside economic engagement is desirable or to be discouraged.

Generally speaking, the concept of democratic procedure is only five and
a half decades old in Korea, which was ruled as a monarchy for centuries
until it was annexed by Japan in 1910. When Korea was liberated from
Japanese rule in 1945 at the end of World War II, and the occupying
Americans pushed on it a democratic government, there was no democratic
tradition to serve as a foundation.

Nonetheless, Oh points out, Korea did have in its recent history the
populist Tonghak concept of righteous people who would unite to correct
wrongs perpetrated by unjust authorities. The 19th century Tonghak
uprising is a point of reference used by various leaders of Korea's
fledgling democracy. Park Chung Hee, the president who did the most to
subvert democratization, nonetheless linked himself to Tonghak through
his father's participation in and near execution because of it, Oh says.
Park used it as a justification for his 1961 military coup against
ineffective officials.  In contrast, Kim Dae-jung, Korea's current
leader, sees Tonghak as a source of national inspiration for
democratization. He has called Tonghak an indigenous democratic ideology
that motivated revolt against oppressive government.

Overshadowing this protodemocratic belief system, however, was Korea's
much longer tradition of authoritarian Confucian rule. Military-groomed
Park was influenced much more by that tradition, as were his two
career-military successors, Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo. (It is
probably not surprising that since taking office, Kim Dae-jung has
called for Koreans to uproot what he labels the "evil legacies" of
Confucianism.)

Oh covers the administrations of Korea's military dictators with quick
detail, describing their manipulations to maintain control despite
growing dissent, such as dispensing false information and squelching the
voice of labor. He has read widely in numerous sources, both in English
and Korean, and catalogs many oft-forgotten details of Korean political
life under their rule. He discusses the role of important political
actors, including the United States government. His discussion of the
powerful hanahwoe secret society of military officers is especially
revealing.

After setting the stage in this period, Oh proceeds to the mid-1980s and
onward, when the Korean people propelled the country toward democracy.
Key, of course, are the events of 1987, when after unprecedented public
protests and under U.S. pressure, Chun and Roh finally shifted course
and agreed to reinstitute direct elections instead of Roh being the sole
candidate presented to the carefully controlled electoral college. The
author then explains the three elections that followed, with Roh being
elected anyway, followed by the opportunistic Kim Young Sam, and then by
opposition leader Kim Dae-jung. He discusses the legacy of each of these
administrations.

Oh reports in detail about the trials of former presidents Chun and
Roh--on one occasion, he was able to attend the proceedings himself. He
provides a penetrating analysis of the unfathomably large-scale
corruption that was disclosed at high levels of government. And he
tracks the Hanbo bankruptcy and other events which helped trigger the
1997 economic crisis, from which Korea is still recovering.

Oh's focuses as he views these and other events are the dynamics of
political change and the interaction (at times unsavory) between
economic development and politics. He pays particular attention to each
of Korea's elections and what they show about Korea's efforts to
democratize. He makes sense out of the continually shifting sand of
Korea's political parties, which seem to change their names and
membership more often than many people buy new cars. (Three primary new
parties emerged in 1995 alone.) He covers fully the conflicts between
various candidates who stubbornly preferred to split the vote rather
than yield to another candidate with similar views.  (Kim Young Sam and
Kim Dae-jung in 1987; Lee Hoi-chang and Rhee In-je in 1997.) And he
illuminates the remarkable political persistence of the aging
three Kims (Kim Jong-pil, Kim Young-sam, and Kim Dae-jung) whose names
have been on the front pages since the 1960s. Oh is a good storyteller,
and some of his accounts of pre-election maneuvering and other political
events are suspenseful and near gripping.

The political and economic transformations that Korea has experienced in
the last fifty years, Oh says, "have been far more revolutionary than
the changes that took place in Korea for thousands of years before
that.  Democracy is showing sufficient vital signs today to indicate
that it is not only surviving but taking root in the southern part of
the divided Korean peninsula and has met the test of attaining
procedural democracy by 'kicking the rascals out' of office and
installing a genuine opposition group. Democracy has passed the stage of
being merely a founding and legitimizing ideology and an aspiration"
(244).

Korea's democracy still faces challenges, nonetheless. One of the
biggest of these is the operation of its political parties, which Oh
says remain the weakest link.  " . . . Political parties are still
essentially loose coalitions of politically active individuals organized
around strong-willed and identifiable political leaders or bosses. They
still do not articulate, with any degree of consistency, political
principles or action plans. Parties are largely based on patron-client
relations and they form, merge, split, and disappear with the movements
and political fortunes of these patrons" (243).

Another area that concerns Oh is the inverse correlation between
political development and economic growth. Democratization suffered most
under the authoritarian regimes that did the most to foster economic
development; in contrast, democratization recently made its most
important gain-the peaceful transition to an opposition leader-at a time
of economic catastrophe. As he completed work on his book shortly after
Korea's economic collapse, Oh worried that economic restructuring and
the creation of battalions of newly unemployed could generate social and
political disturbances that would threaten the stability of Korea's new
form of government and its hard-won democratic gains. Two years later,
as this review is written, that fortunately seems not to be on the
horizon.

Oh's book ends just after Kim Dae-jung's inauguration in February 1998. 
Like many observers, Oh is enthusiastic about Korea's accomplishment in
peacefully conducting its first transition to an opposition president. 
He notes various challenges that face Kim Dae-jung, some of which have
unfolded while the book was being printed.  The reader cannot but hope
for at least a journal article by Prof. Oh after Kim Dae-jung's term has
ended, applying his keen observations to this transition of Korean
democracy as well.


Citation:
Thorpe, Norman 2000
Review of John Kie-chiang Oh, _Korean Politics: The Quest for
Democratization and Economic Development_
Korean Studies Review 2000, no. 14
Electronic file: http://www.iic.edu/thelist/review/ksr00-14.htm