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September 20, 2005
Workshop 3: Learning about the Democratization Processes of South Korea and Japan
Friday, November 4th 5:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. @ 1114 Social Sciences
Presenter: Eunhye Yoo (Sociology)
Abstract
State, Intellectuals and Citizens in the Public Sphere During 1945-1950: Comparative Analysis on Korea and Japan
Using Habermas’s concept of “public sphere,” I take an alternative approach to explain the development processes of civil society in South Korea and Japan after World War II. My study draws special attention to cultural resources created by intellectuals in the South Korean and Japanese public spheres. Both South Korea and Japan similarly received mass flows of the American capitals and democratic political ideologies during the few years of the U.S. occupation following the war. However, Japan experienced a rather smooth transition to democracy, when South Korea faced challenges with political dictatorships. What socio-political conditions in history made these contrasting outcomes in the development of the public sphere for civil society? The public sphere is a critical condition in transition to democracy. However, few focus on the preconditions for the public sphere moving towards civil society. I argue that cultural resources in the public sphere are critical in explaining the development processes towards democracy. Extreme physical violence by the state paralyzed the audience-oriented communication among citizens, suppressing open and active discussions on a variety of issues, but particularly on politics during this period in South Korea. Due to this, South Korean intellectuals suffered from the lack of cultural resources. This repression from the state resulted in the failure of promoting democracy with their cultural resources in South Korea. More open and active discussions on politics in the public sphere created a great amount of cultural resources for citizens and intellectuals to engage in further elaborations on “their own democracy” in post-war Japan. In Japan Studies Workshop, I intend to elaborate the importance of incorporating the experiences (e.g. physical violence) in the private sphere into explicating the public sphere.
Posted by at September 20, 2005 9:14 AM | Presentation Abstracts