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

[Jacqueline Pak]

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Dear List,

I noticed that my recent message was edited by the moderator who 
added the phrase "new address and position" on my contact information 
in big BLOCK letters, perhaps because I had earlier asked to 
send the address change (and had some technical problems) and was put 
on hold. Wonder if we should debate about editing vs. moderating the 
message?:-   Thank you anyway.

My more serious comments will address the book review of: 
Korean Politics: The Quest for Democratization and Economic
Development, by John Kie-chiang Oh, (Cornell University Press, 1999), 
by Norman Thorpe, Whitworth College.

Especially as I had earlier organized a conference on "The Origins of 
Korean Democracy" with John Oh and myself as presenters at the Wilson 
Center in Washington DC in July, I feel compelled to speak about the 
issues of the "history and philosophical foundation of democracy" on
modern Korea which Thorpe explored.  

For example, Thorpe begins with: 
>How does a country that has no history of representative government, 
and no philosophical foundation for it, establish a democracy?

And he adds: 
> 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.

I am afraid Thorpe is only partially right.  Of course, he said 
"generally speaking" but even under the Choson monarchy, the 
Independence Club did in fact initiate and practice democratic 
procedures. The democratic philosophy was also introduced by the 
Christian church and newspapers such as The Independent, among 
others.  Very well-known but worth a mention. 

Also, my own study, "An Ch'angho (1978-1938) and the Nationalist 
Origins of Korean Democracy" reveals that the Korean independence 
movement of the several decades before 1945 led by An Ch'angho was 
essentially a democracy movement --- which importantly laid the 
democratic foundation.  For example, An Ch'angho created the first 
Korean republican organization. Sinminhoe, in 1907 and wrote a series 
of democratic constitutions for his revolutionary associations as 
part of the anticolonial struggle.  Also in terms of "representative 
government" before the Liberation, one could highlight the 
Provisional Government in Shanghai unified by An in 1919. It seems to 
me that a lack of historical analysis of such significant "democratic 
tradition" of modern Korea, i.e., the Korean nationalist movement, is 
actually a critical weakness and lacuna in Oh's work.

> 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. 
> Overshadowing this protodemocratic belief system, however, was
> Korea's much longer tradition of authoritarian Confucian rule. 

This was particularly problematized in the conference.  Did Tonghak 
as "protodemocratic  belief system" actually have any concretely 
modern democratic programs and reform proposals?  Of course, Lew 
Young Ick and others have suggested that the Tonghak's call for and 
vision of the righteous government was still within the traditional 
Confucian monarchy.  Subseqeuntly, the Ch'ondogyo certainly played an 
important role during the 3.1 movement but still the Chodogyo leaders 
did not offer specifically modern democratic nation-building paradigm 
or programs during this time.  

In any case, I appreciate the book and the review. And there is much 
that I like about Oh's book, which included the troubling past 
of Park Chung Hee (which made the reader see how he evolved to 
become a Machiavellian dictator) and thoughtful and 
balanced descriptions of the political dramas in the past decades.  
Well, just wanted to update some of the salient points of debate 
which may be useful for further discussions on the subject of Korean 
democracy.

Thank you,
Jacqueline Pak