KOREA 177 Intellectual History in Modern Korea: Anti Americanism

Democracy & Civil Society Democratization Civil society and democratic transition, 84-87 Civil society and democratic consolidation, 88- 1993 Korea Federation for Environmental Movement 80,000 dues-paying members Jan. 1997 General Labor Strike NCPCRJ (National Catholic Priests’ Corps for the Realization of Justice) Dec. 3,1997 IMF agreed to provide $57 billion Dec. 1997 Kim Dae Jung was elected C. s. and Mass Mobilization– social reform Citizens’ Council for Fair Election – election climate Economic reform – chaebol reform -- protection of the minority share holders 1970s-1980s: state-society conflict model – minjung (laborers and students) In the 1990s: “public sphere” / civil society – NGO’s early 2000: the civil society was seen less as a panacea amid the growth of the anti- globalization movement and the transition of many countries to democracy Since the economic crisis in 2007: the role of the state became more important Labor Movement The Counter-public sphere --challenge the established public sphere --aim to get truth and emancipation Discourse of Moral privilege Abang (friend) vs t’abang (enemy): minjung as inter-subjective agency informal institutions of undongkwŏn Nexus of sŏnbae-hubae / Circulation of banned texts / Circles and seminars Historical Evolution Era of yearning for democracy, early 1970s Era of Emergency Number Nine, 1975-79 The era of liberalization, 1984-88 Minjung as meta-narrative analysis of the origins and development of the concept of minjung related to radical intellectuals' desire to overcome the absence of decolonization radical intellectuals thought Koreans had lost their historical subjectivity. They recast the subject of Korean history as the subjugated minjung.  Such recasting attacked directly the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea (ROK), its dependency on us neocolonialist power, and its vapid ideology of anticommunism the creation of a counter-public sphere in South Korea, her conception of what is known as the undongkwoŏn (movement sphere) in Korean. The minjung activists focused not just on the opening of civil society; they wanted to address as well the contradictions of capitalism—its dehumanization, Democratic Transformations: From Minjung to Netizens June 1987 – transition to democracy : demise of the authoritarian government Dec. 1992 – Kim Young Sam elected as the first civilian president IMF and Global Neo-liberalism Dec. 1997 —Kim Dae Jung as the first elected president from the opposing party NGO movement – thousands of NGO’s by 2000: emergence of the civil society 2000s – internet grass-root movements – netizens 2002/2004 – Roh Mu Hyun /Open Uri Party – left of the center, young, connected defeated the old conservative