Manufacturing Contempt: State-Linked Populism in South Korea (original) (raw)
Related papers
"Low-Road" Liberalism: Censoring Public Discourses on Communist North Korea and Imperial Japan
SOCIETY, 2023
An influential strain of thought supports restrictions on individual rights to achieve certain liberal values. The temporary use of illiberal means for ostensibly liberal ends (Doyle's "low-road" liberalism) is embraced by both the political right and left to serve their partisan policy goals. Our essay analyzes low-road policies and practices, specifically speech restrictions, and how they are countered. We compare two transnational campaigns, mainly based in democratic South Korea, which criticize either the North Korean and Japanese governments for their current or past human rights violations. The "anti-North" campaign is supported by South Korea's political right and the "anti-Japan" campaign by the left. Each has exercised bureaucratic-institutional power to stigmatize target groups and punish dissenting speech. Each campaign is countered by a mix of low-road, partisan opponents, who would similarly exercise illiberal power to achieve their respective goals, and high-road, procedural liberals, who secularly criticize censorship and endorse open, rational debate to correct flawed information, advance shared knowledge, and generate bipartisan, multilateral consensus.
Contentious activism and inter-Korean relations, Columbia University Press (2014)
2014
In South Korea, the contentious debate over relations with the North transcends traditional considerations of physical and economic security, and political activists play a critical role in shaping the discussion of these issues as they pursue the separate yet connected agendas of democracy, human rights, and unification. Providing international observers with a better understanding of policymakers' management of inter-Korean relations, Danielle L. Chubb traces the development of various policy disputes and perspectives from the 1970s through South Korea's democratic transition. Focusing on four case studies—the 1980 Kwangju uprising, the June 1987 uprising, the move toward democracy in the 1990s, and the decade of "progressive" government that began with the election of Kim Dae Jung in 1997—she tracks activists' complex views on reunification along with the rise and fall of more radical voices encouraging the adoption of a North Korean–style form of socialism. While these specific arguments have dissipated over the years, their vestiges can still be found in recent discussions over how to engage with North Korea and bring security and peace to the peninsula. Extending beyond the South Korean example, this examination shows how the historical trajectory of norms and beliefs can have a significant effect on a state's threat perception and security policy. It also reveals how political activists, in their role as discursive agents, play an important part in the creation of the norms and beliefs directing public debate over a state's approach to the ethical and practical demands of its foreign policy.
The Rise and Fall of Japan's New Far Right: How Anti-Korean Discourses Went Mainstream
Politics & Society, 2021
Why has right-wing activism in Japan, despite its persistence throughout the postwar era, only gained significant traction recently? Focusing on the Zaitokukai, an anti-Korean movement in Japan, this article demonstrates how the new Far Right were able to popularize formerly stigmatized right-wing ideas. The Zaitokukai represents a political group distinct from the traditional Right and reflective of new Far Right movements spreading worldwide. In Japan, concerns about the growing influence of South Korea and China in the 1980s as well as the decline of left-wing norms opened up a discursive opportunity for the new Far Right. By framing Korean postcolonial minorities as undeserving recipients of social welfare benefits, the Zaitokukai mobilized perceptions of threat that has continued to powerfully influence public perceptions of Koreans even following the group's organizational decline. While past research has focused on the new Far Right's political influence, this article stresses their roles as ideological entrepreneurs.
Critical Asian Studies North Koreans' public narratives and conditional inclusion in South Korea
Critical Asia Studies, 2020
This article draws on the public testimonies of North Koreans living in South Korea (t’albungmin) and analyzes the role that these narratives play in South Korean society as mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. North and South Korea technically remain at war, with South Korea claiming sovereignty over the entire Korean peninsula. While t’albungmin are eligible for South Korean citizenship, they describe feeling excluded from full social membership. Although some t’albungmin seek anonymity, this paper considers those who gain social status by speaking publicly about their lives and denouncing the North Korean regime. In so doing, they distance themselves from North Korea and align themselves with the “good” discourse of human rights. However, their actions reinforce a logic of exclusion, implying that t’albungmin who prefer anonymity are “sympathizers” of the North and consequently restricting their access to social benefits and resources. This case of conditional inclusion illuminates tensions that arise when a sovereignty claim entails the incorporation of people from an enemy state. It also highlights the carefully delineated boundaries of publicly acceptable behavior within which “suspect” citizens must remain as a condition for positive recognition.
Journal of East Asian Studies, 2022
South Korea's persistent enmity towards its erstwhile colonizer Japan has been a compelling topic of East Asian international relations scholarship for decades. This article argues that the historical evolution of South Korea's democracy offers a vital and overlooked piece of this puzzle. Given that it emerged from one of the most virulently anti-communist dictatorships of the Cold War period, in a society facing an ongoing threat from communist North Korea, any left-of-center opposition movement faced an uphill battle against severe anti-communism. In such circumstances, the only way for a leftist opposition party to survive was by pitting its stronger anti-Japan reputation against conservatives’ anti-communism. After South Korea's democracy stabilized, liberals tried and failed to overturn the anti-leftist institutions left over from the Cold War and then sought equilibrium through parallel rhetoric targeting pro-Japanese elements. Today, neither left nor right can aff...
Populist Attitudes in South Korea: Implications and Definitions
Transcience, 2022
The study of populist attitudes has become increasingly relevant over the past decade, and researchers have struggled to find a model to study these political attitudes more accurately. In this paper, I investigate a strong tendency toward inclusive populist democracy in South Korea that seems to stray from the common black and white thinking associated with populism elsewhere. I find that this profile in Korea is most common among undergraduate educated individuals who are likely to protest and believe that South Korea does not run on meritocracy. I also find that there is virtually no difference in the level of populist attitudes in those who believed the Moon administration was successful in rooting out corruption compared with those who did not. My findings suggest that theories of the causes and consequences of populism, especially around the assumption that it rises from the uneducated masses and must bifurcate society, should be reexamined.
European Journal of Korean Studies, 2020
The present article reconsiders the emergence and institutionalization of the South Korean New Right Movement (2003-2007). Tracing institutional changes in post-democratization South Korea, I argue that the New Right can be evaluated as a process of Cultural Trauma within the conservative ideological spectrum. Revealing the movement's institutionalization until the inauguration of the Lee Myung-bak government in 2008, I investigate in detail the role of the conservative mass media in the movement's rise. Furthermore, I examine the movement's relation to contemporary Korean history and memory, clarifying why the New Right ultimately failed in gaining widespread support for their historical narratives.
North Koreans’ Public Narratives and Conditional Inclusion in South Korea (In Press)
2020
This article draws on the public testimonies of North Koreans living in South Korea (t’albungmin) and analyzes the role that these narratives play in South Korean society as mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. North and South Korea technically remain at war, with South Korea claiming sovereignty over the entire Korean peninsula. While t’albungmin are eligible for South Korean citizenship, they describe feeling excluded from full social membership. Although some t’albungmin seek anonymity, this paper considers those who gain social status by speaking publicly about their lives and denouncing the North Korean regime. In so doing, they distance themselves from North Korea and align themselves with the “good” discourse of human rights. However, their actions reinforce a logic of exclusion, implying that t’albungmin who prefer anonymity are “sympathizers,” and consequently restricting their access to social benefits and resources. This case of conditional inclusion illuminates tension...
Democratization and Changing Anti-American Sentiments in South Korea
Asian Survey, 2007
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Future of South Korea-Japan Relations: Decoupling or Liberal Discourse
Political Quarterly, 2020
South Korea-Japan relations are at their lowest point in decades, as colonial era disputes flare once again. Most pundits argue that the South Korean public is strongly united against Japan. We argue that South Korean elites are sharply divided over how to manage the crisis; this division is starting to impact how South Koreans understand colonial era narratives; and, long-term, bilateral relations depend on how these growing divisions play out. Despite state censorship, a rising counter-narrative in South Korea challenges the dominant, Manichaean, anti-Japanese one. For the first time, Korea and Japan have a realistic chance of reconciling based on liberal public discourse and a nuanced, empirically based understanding of history.