Sunhyuk Kim

State and Civil Society in South Korea's Democratic Consolidation: Is the Battle Really over?

Prolonged intensive conflict and confrontation between a repressive state and an oppositional civil society characterized South Koreas democratic transition from 1985 to 1987. The Korean experiment with democracy1 started with a series of relaxation measures by the ruling authoritarian regime in late 1983 and early 1984. Unlike some of the classic cases belonging to the third wave of global democratization, political liberalization in South Korea was not prompted by a fatal split between hardliners and softliners within the power bloc.2 Instead, the main impetus came from the authoritarian regimes overconfidence about its legitimacy and stability.3 The direct consequence of the 1983-84 political liberalization was a resurrec-

Civil society in South Korea: From grand democracy movements to petty interest

Abstract“Civil society” has been at the center of recent discussions on South Korean democratization. This article examines the current configuration and the historical evolution of civil society in South Korea. Beginning with a synoptic overview of South Korean civil society today, the article selects and analyzes three “cuts” in the past—1960–1961, 1973–1979, and 1985–1987. What emerges from this historical analysis is an image of a highly resistant civil society, gradually expanding and ultimately culminating in the grand democracy movement in 1987. For South Korean democracy to consolidate, civil society should be moving from an amorphous assemblage of antigovernment forces to a tightly organized and well-defined interest group society.

Contextualizing the meaning of public management reforms: a comparison of The Netherlands and South Korea

Previous literature has demonstrated that the apparent global convergence between public management reforms is misleading because there are major differences in how a global paradigm of reform is implemented. This is not only a question of implementation, but also of interpretation. Even when reforms are similar with respect to the administrative measures that are implemented, they can have significantly different political and cultural meanings, depending on the broader state—society relations within which they are embedded. A cross-national analysis of reforms must therefore take sufficient account of the historical development of the position of the state and of state—civil society relations. To demonstrate the point, the article compares public management reforms in the Netherlands and South Korea. Points for practitioners Although cross-national comparison of public management reforms can be a source of inspiration, it is crucial to keep in mind that similar reforms can have different meanings depending on the national context and thus can result in different policies, programmes, and institutions. For practitioners in public management and administration, this implies that, before importing ‘good’ practices from elsewhere, it is imperative to assess how those practices were part of broader historical developments in the country of origin and to what extent the conditions within the country of destination are different.

Contentious Democracy in South Korea: An Active Civil Society and Ineffectual Political Parties

South Koreas twenty-five-year-old democracy is a ”contentious” one, in which important public matters are often debated and decided through direct contention and confrontation between civil society and the state, without mediation through political parties as is usually the case in many Western ”representative” democracies. Popular protests and street demonstrations continue to be a preferred form of political expression in South Korean democracy. The other aspect of Koreas very active civil society is underinstitutionalized and ineffectual political parties. Whether underdeveloped political parties prove to be a temporary problem in an innovative experiment with creating a new type of ”contentious democracy,” or a fatal flaw that will undermine South Korean democracy, remains to be seen.

Making e-procurement work in a decentralized procurement system

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the implementation of initiative e-procurement in decentralized system on Indonesia’s local government system. Design/methodology/approach – The authors combine quantitative and qualitative methods. The central finding of this research is that human resources are the pivotal factors that determine the performance of local e-procurement in three cities. This research focusses on three local governments in Indonesia – Yogyakarta City, Tangerang City, and Kutaikartanegara Regency. Findings – The central finding of this research is that human resources are the pivotal factors that determine the performance of local e-procurement in three cities. However, Tangerang City is going institutionalization phase in e-procurement initiative to ensure its sound local regulation. Research limitations/implications – There are several limitations to this study including the recent nature of decentralized procurement in Indonesia, limited standardized and disaggregated ...

Civil society and local activism in South Korea's local democratization

Recent studies on causes of intergovernmental transformation in old and new democracies have found that decentralization is often the outcome of negotiations between national and local political interests. South Korea is commonly believed to be an exception because local elections and institutions introduced in the early 1990s were, by and large, the product of negotiations among political elites at the centre, without significant inclusion of local actors. However, this article attempts to explicate a hitherto ignored aspect of decentralization reform in Korea: the role of civil society and local activism in the politics of decentralization. In the 2000s, several ‘triggering events’ such as economic instability, democratic consolidation, emergence of civilian leaders, and the growth of civil society provided a strong momentum for the decentralization movement. We demonstrate how civic organizations at both national and local levels have played significant roles in proposing and pushing for decentralization, and argue that the bottom-up movement for decentralization under the Roh Moo-hyun administration was surprisingly well mobilized and institutionalized, especially at the agenda-setting stage.

The political origins of South Korea's economic crisis: Is democratization to blame?

Different explanations have been presented regarding the recent economic crisis in South Korea. After critically evaluating these explanations, the article modifies and refines the dominant model, the mea culpa paradigm, to develop a political, interactive and integrative explanation of the crisis. The economic breakdown during the Kim Young Sam regime in Korea (1993–98) was mainly due to the Kim governments failure to carry out its well‐intended economic reforms, particularly chaebol reforms. The reasons for the failure of the economic reforms, in turn, consist of a set of political factors, including President Kims distinctive leadership style encapsulated by ‘decretistic populism’, the chaebôls effective cultural strategies of agenda denial and an anti‐reform campaign by conservative social forces. In this respect, the economic crisis in Korea is also a political crisis. The article refutes a popular interpretation within Korea that blames democracy for the economic crisis, demonstrating that there is at best a very tenuous relationship between the democratization in the country since 1987 and the economic crisis. To overcome the crisis, the current Kim Dae Jung government in Korea should avoid decretistic populism, forge and maintain a constructive alliance with civil society groups and develop a solid coalition for economic reform.

Administrative reform in South Korea: New Public Management and the bureaucracy

This article analyzes the political dynamics of South Korea’s recent administrative reform. We argue that successive South Korean governments’ New Public Management-inspired reform programs have only achieved partial success. In particular, they have largely failed to attain their ultimate goal – i.e. significant weakening of the traditionally strong elite bureaucracy in policymaking. The bureaucracy in the country has not become weakened as a result of the reform. Rather, the central government ministries have augmented their power and institutional autonomy. Those who were in charge of designing and implementing reform measures were bureaucrats themselves who were supposed to be the ‘target’ of the reform. Such situation, in which the reformers were expected to reform themselves, has resulted in numerous incidences of sabotage, delay, obstruction, and distortion of the reform. This article concludes that it is crucial to consider the local contexts in which reform initiatives are adopted, interpreted, accepted, legitimated, and concretized for implementation. Points for practitioners Administrative reform often brings unintended consequences. New Public Management-inspired reform, with its intention to weaken the strong elite bureaucracy, could ironically result in the augmentation of the bureaucracy. The main reason for this is because it is usually the bureaucrats themselves who design and manage the process of administrative reform. It is also the elite bureaucrats who define, operationalize, and implement specific reform measures. Therefore, it is crucial for the reform supporters to ensure adequate popular oversight mechanisms outside the bureaucracy at various stages of the reform process, such as citizen monitoring or civic participation.

GLOBALIZATION AND NATIONAL RESPONSES

In this paper, I first present a definition of globalization focused on deepened international interdependence, proliferation of relevant actors, and increased complexity of issues and problems, which all demands more effective multisectoral, collaborative problem-solving. Drawing on the existing literature on the nature and impact of globalization, I develop a typology of national responses to globalization. Using the typology, I examine the case of Korea and observe that successive Korean governments over the past few decades have all pursued a “bandwagoning” strategy, putting too much emphasis on accepting and adapting to neoliberal globalization. Considering that neoliberal globalization represents only one type of globalization, I suggest that Korea needs to pursue a more flexible national strategy to deal with multiple types of globalization. Flexibilization of Korea’s globalization strategy should begin with a careful examination of other countries’ strategies and a thorough assessment of those conditions that could enable Korea to utilize a transformative globalization strategy in alliance with other actors in global governance.

Democratization, Economic Liberalization, and Labor Politics: Mexico and Korea

This study examines the impact of economic liberalization and democratization on labor politics in Mexico and Korea and the strategies labor has evolved in response to these changes. It begins with an overview of the pre-transition period in the two countries with particular emphasis on the distinct patterns of state-labor relations that emerged in each and their impact on the respective labor movements. The following section focuses on the effects of economic liberalization and democratization on labor and the response of labor in each country. The comparative section identifies and analyzes the similarities and differences in the ways in which economic and political reform has affected the labor movements and compares the strategies of labor. We suggest two sets of factors to explain these effects and differences: the characteristics of the respective labor movements and state-labor relations that had emerged as a result of pre-transition historical developments in the two countries; and the dynamics of the transition process itself, particularly the relative significance, sequence, and timing of political and economic liberalization.