[KS] Publication of the KOREA JOURNAL Winter 2006 Issue

Korea Journal kj at unesco.or.kr
Mon Jan 8 21:17:19 EST 2007


Dear List members,

We are pleased to announce the publication of the winter 2006 issue of the KOREA JOURNAL. This issue features the special topic: “Local Autonomy and Democracy in South Korea.” It also includes four research papers.

Ⅰ. Local Autonomy and Democracy in Korea 
The winter 2006 issue of the Korea Journal examines the Korean local politics that has thus far been neglected and overshadowed by the centralized “Korean vortex.” In particular, it focuses on community power, local elections, the central-local relationship, and local autonomy in the whirlpool of globalization. Every author in this issue voices the importance of an empowered local civil society.  
While examining the nature of local governance and community power, Park Chong-Min describes the realities of local politics with a focus on local decisions that are subjected to tight central control, and then argues that local empowerment and citizens’ participation in local politics is a key to democratic local governance in Korea. Hwang Ah-Ran offers an analysis of the past four local elections and reveals that Korean local elections have been characterized by a low rate of voter turnout, voting differences between urban and rural areas, and regionalist voting behavior. While conceptualizing the asymmetric democratization found in Korea as “democratic lag,” Kim Sunhyuk presents the empowerment of civil society as a solution. Kang Myung-goo, based on the regulation theory, argues that the Korean development state, instead of being hollowed, actively mediated the nexus between globalization and local transformation, a peculiar characteristic among worldwide local transformations.  

Park Chong-Min (Korea Univ.) / Local Governance and Community Power in South Korea
Hwang Ah-Ran (Pusan National Univ.) / Voters and Parties in Local Elections: 1995-2006
Kim Sunhyuk (Korea Univ.) / Civil Society and Local Democracy
Kang Myung-goo (Ajou Univ.) / Globalization of the Economy and Localization of Politics?: Restructuring the Developmental State via Decentralization in Korea

Ⅱ. Articles 

Kang Jung In criticizes the Western-centrism embedded in the Korean academic disciplines. Chang Woo-Young and Lee Won-Tae analyze the Korean cyberactivism brought by the changed structure of political opportunity. Jun EunHa and others examine how Silhak can be applied to modern planning theory. Finally, Park Hong-Kyu reevaluates King Taejong as a successful statesman, while overcoming the dichotomist assessment of him as either the “embodiment of power” or “Confucian king.” 

Kang Jung In (Sogang Univ.) / Academic Dependency: Western-centrism in Korean Political Science 
Chang Woo-Young and Lee Won-Tae / Cyberactivism and Political Empowerment in Civil Society: A Comparative Analysis of Korean Cases
Jun EunHa, Cho KyuYoung, and Lee SeongWoo / Implications of Korean Traditional Epistemology in Planning Theory: Focusing on the Pragmatic Philosophy of Silhak
Park Hong-Kyu (Korea Univ.) / King Taejong as a Statesman: From Power to Authority 

KOREA JOURNAL a       U   n   i   v 
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