Democracy and Authority in Korea: The Cultural Dimension in Korean Politics (review)

In the introductory chapter to Democracy and Authority in Korea, Geir Helgesen addresses the portrayal of South Korea as a politically unstable state. Military coups, student demonstrations, labor disputes, and corruption scandals have all lent credibility to this perception. Some scholars have concluded that the problem originates in Korea's political culture, derived from a mainly Confucian heritage and characterized by hierarchical social structures. In short, Korea's indigenous ways have hindered the transition to liberal democracy. Helgesen proposes that the problem is not the political tradition but the acceptance of Western-style liberal democracy as the ideal model for a political system in South Korea. He starts from the perspective that Korean politics must be understood in the context of indigenous culture; from that understanding a culturally viable democracy in Korea can emerge. His goal is to illuminate the foundations of Korean political culture.

Helgesen takes a multidisciplinary approach, employing elements of political science, classical sociology, and social psychology. He presents the fundamental values and beliefs shared by the intellectual elite in South Korea as measured through a series of surveys and qualitative interviews that he administered in 1989 (pilot study), 1990, and 1995. Each chapter presents a review of the topic it addresses, the views of the survey respondents and interviewees on that topic (in most of the chapters), and the implications for Korean political culture. After the introductory chapter regarding Helgesen's approach to the study of political culture, chapter 2 addresses legacies of the colonial period, chapter 3 discusses the impact of national division, and chapter 4 begins to examine democracy and how it is understood in South Korea. Chapter 5 looks at the roots of political culture in Korea, and chapter 6 illustrates how familism carries these traditions forward today. Chapter 7, the longest chapter in the book, examines political socialization during childhood, especially through the school system, and the transmission of political culture. Chapters 8 and 9 deal with political parties and political leadership, respectively. In chapters 2 through 9, Helgesen achieves his primary goal for the book by exposing various facets of Korean political culture in a clear and cogent fashion. A secondary theme in the book is to evaluate the degree to which government efforts to manipulate political culture through the moral education curriculum have succeeded.

In chapter 10, "Prospects for a Korean Democracy," Helgesen describes the postwar period as one in which democratic rituals accompanied authoritarian procedures. Democracy has been viewed as a panacea by those who have opposed illegitimate authoritarian rule, from the early twentieth century to the present. Democracy has also been presented by successive postwar governments as a lofty goal, in name if not in substance. According to Helgesen, however, high expectations based on democratic ideals confront a social reality construed according to the traditional value system. When the reality has inevitably failed to live up to ideals, mistrust and alienation have taken root. The result is a system in which a gap has grown between the political leadership and the general populace. He writes:

What this study has demonstrated is that grafting of Western-style democratic structures on to the Korean political culture has failed and is no future solution to the country's political ills. Rather, another form of democracy is required that is receptive to (indeed, based on) values and norms that the people hold in high esteem. Only when basic values and political aspirations are linked together will there develop a political system worthy of popular support, one that is enduring and workable.

(p. 248)

Helgesen does not suggest what this political system should look like. While some readers may be disappointed by this omission, it is consistent with his belief that Western political systems should not be "grafted" on to the indigenous political culture. Instead he points out that terms like "equality," "individual," "freedom," and "human rights" probably have different connotations in a Korean context. It must be up...