• Author : Do MyoYuen, Hyun-Jin Cha
• Publication : Journal of Contemporary Politics
• Publisher : Sogang Institute of Political Studies
• Volume : 16(1)
• Date : April 2023

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of Korean protestors, with a particular focus on personal values, political ideology, and personality traits (Big 5). Specifically, the study identifies materialistic and post-materialistic values, as well as political ideology, as the major motivating factors for protest participation. Furthermore, individuals having high levels of values or liberal ideologies are more likely to participate in protests when they are extraverted or open to new experiences. Empirical results show that liberal ideology, extraversion, and openness are direct factors that influence protest participation in South Korea. However, the direct impact of materialism and post-materialism values on protest participation has not been confirmed. In addition, extraversion is found to have indirect effects on protest participation by interacting with materialistic values and conservative ideology. These findings suggest that personality traits, which have not been considered significant factors in affecting Korean protest participation thus far, can significantly influence an individual’s protest participation.

• Author : Doo-Jin Kim
• Publication :  Minjok Yeonku
• Publisher :  Korea Research Center of Ethnology
• Volume : 81
• Date : March 2023

Abstract: We explore how the concept of “civics” (kongmin) has been formulated or perceived from the period of the US military administration through the 1950s. To do this, we focus on the middle school civics textbook during that time. Civic education during the Japanese colonial period was intended to instill the ‘public’ ideology into the people. Following the introduction of American ‘social studies’, the democratic citizenship education policy under the American military administration continued to have an impact on the indoctrination of Western citizenship in Korea. Afterwards civic education has to do with the abolition of values associated with Japanese colonial rule, the elimination of the status system (feudal class) in Korea (Joseon), and the abolition of discrimination between men and woman, free economy, popular sovereignty, and labor rights. Conceptual change in civic education has tended to pave the way for a radical change in perception that allows for the introduction of Western citizenship values in Korea. The civic textbooks of the wartime education system during the Korean War reinforced the anti-communist character of civic education. After the introduction of Western democracy, the concepts of “democracy” and “republic” was likely to be understood in the same sense.

• Author : Hyun-Jin Cha
• Publication :  Journal of Korean Politics
• Publisher :  The Institute for Political Studies
• Volume : 32(1)
• Date : February 2023

Abstract: This paper aims to identify the changes of candlelight protest participants since 2004. While existing literature on candlelight protests tends to analyze the causes of candlelight protests at macro-level or the characteristics of candlelight protestors at micro-level, this paper analyzes the differences between a candlelight protest participant and a nonparticipant at micro-level while simultaneously considering the political opportunity structure. This research asserts that the police responses to protests and the Democratic advantage in Congress are the political opportunity structures that affect people to participate in the candlelight protests. The police responses to protests affect the cost to participate in the candlelight protest while the Democratic advantage in Congress impacts on the benefit from protesting. The impact of the political opportunity structure on the protest participation vary depending on the voter type. The empirical analysis shows the likelihood of core liberal voters and swing voters protesting decreased as police arrested protestors or suppressed protests. Also, the hypothesis was confirmed in that the increase of Democratic Advantage in Congress affected the likelihood of core liberal voters to protest more than it would affect the likelihood of swing voters to protest. As this paper evaluates a series of multiple candlelight protests and proposes a multilevel framework, the paper overcomes the limits of existing literature that studied candlelight protests from a single level.

• Author : Seongwon Gwon and  Iordanka Alexandrova
• Publication : The Journal of International Relations
• Publisher :  The East Asian Association Of International Studies
• Volume : 25(4)
• Date : December 2022

Abstract: Why did President Barack Obama’s administration withdraw US troops from Iraq, but not Afghanistan? This article examines Washington’s strategic considerations to answer this question of scholarly and practical importance. It argues that US policy on military interventions was aimed at preserving relative power. Washington decided on keeping US forces in Afghanistan because the benefits of continued intervention surpassed the costs. By staying, America blocked the expansion of Russian and Chinese influence in Central Asia and restrained local militant organizations, thus reducing the likelihood of terrorist activities and regional conflict. These benefits outweighed the moderate expenses for troops deployment and helped maintain US relative strength. Conversely, the US government withdrew from Iraq because the costs of continued intervention nullified the benefits. On one hand, America’s presence in Iraq caused confrontation with Iran, jeopardizing the peaceful resolution of the Iranian nuclear issue. On the other hand, it fueled international opposition against the US and consumed substantial funds, resulting in loss of clout and resources. As there were few benefits from continued deployment, Washington chose withdrawal to minimize the loss of US relative power.

• Author : Sangsoo Lim
• Publication : Journal of Social Science
• Publisher :  Research Institute of Social Science, Kyung Hee University
• Volume : 48(3)
• Date : December 2022

Abstract: Military integration has been the source of debate in Europe ever since the end of World War II, the debate intensifying due to increasing Russian threat since 2010s. However, despite increasing voice for the need to integrate militarily, there has been very little actual progress in military integration in Europe. What factors
are behind such stagnant state of European military integration? This paper argues that Stephen Walt’s balance of threat theory can contribute to explaining the puzzling phenomenon. Applying the theory to the European case, this paper shows that the Eastern and Western Europeans are likely to have different degree of threat perception towards Russia. Such difference is largely caused by two factors: 1) difference in national aggregate power, 2) different geographical proximity to the Russian threat. As a result, more highly threatened Eastern Europeans tend to distrust European military integration and prefer NATO as more certain way of balancing the Russian threat. The findings imply that it is unlikely for large-scale European military integration to take place in the near future.

• Author : Hyun-Jin Cha
• Publication : Comparative Democratic Studies
• Publisher : Inje Institute of Democracy and Autonomy
• Volume : 18(2)
• Date : December 2022

Abstract: This study aims to analyze the characteristics of Korean protest participants from 2004 to 2018. This paper especially examines whether generational attributions are reflected in Korean protestors, focusing on age cohorts born at a similar period. To be specific, this research argues that generations who have experienced crucial political or economic events such as June uprising in 1987 or IMF economic crisis in 1998 at impressionable year are more likely to participate in protest than other generations. As a result of empirical analysis through 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2018 Korea General Social Survey(KGSS) data, this paper examines an effect of age on protest participation in Korea is due to not age effects but cohort effects. This research contributes the influence of generation on protest participation, a type of non-institutional political participation, pointing out that existing literature on generation only focuses on institutional political participation such as voting behaviors.

• Author: Nae-Young Lee
• Publication : The Journal of Asiatic Studies
• Publisher : Asiatic Research Institute
• Volume : 65(4)
• Date : December 2022

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to examine causes and effects of affective polarization among Korean electorate. In order to examine the main causes of affective polarization, this paper suggests the two contending theories: the partisan identity theory and the ideology/policy theory, and various hypoheses drawn from the two theories are tested by empirical analysis. Empirical findings indicate that affective polarization is strongly related to the strength of partisan identity as well as ideological distance and policy difference between the two main parties. In addition, strong interaction effects between the strength of partisan identity and policy difference of the two main parties is detected. This paper also tries to analyze non-political effects of affective polarization in Korea. This paper examines whether affective polarization brings negative effects on four different types of social relations between the partisans of different parties. The empirical findings show that the hypothses are only partially supported. In the highly intimate social relations such as marriage and close friendship, the negative effect of affective polarization on social relations is very salient. Yet in the less intimate social relations such as neighbors and company colleague, the negative effect of affective polarization is not salient.

• Author : Chiwon Choi
• Publisher : Zeitschrift der Koreanisch-Deutschen Gesellschaft fuer Sozialwissenschaften
• Publication : Koreanisch-Deutsche Gesellschaft Fuer Sozialwissenschaften(K-G Association For Social Sciences)
• Volume : 32(4)
• Date : December 2022

Abstract: The link of romanticism, the historical school and historicism (Historismus) is neither ‘reason’ (freedom) nor progress advocated by the Enlightenment and inherited by Hegel, but ‘history’ (understood as life) that cannot be systematized within philosophical concepts. Weber calls himself as a ‘son of historical school’. As confirmed in many parts of the fountain of his thought, his negative attitude towards the Enlightenment and Hegel’s philosophy tells us that his thought is essentially characterized by the rejection of philosophy and the primacy of history, which historicism (Historismus) and historical school justify. Two moments are thus inherent in his thought: resistance of history to philosophy on the one hand and philosophy subsumed by history on the other hand. Thus, historicism (Historismus) and the branches of the historical school in a special sense, that is, historicist jurisprudence, historicist economics, and historicist historiography, are the source and nourishment of Weber’s thought. In this way, Weber, as a ‘son of the historical school’, stands in the tradition of Herder, Savigny, Ranke, Droysen, Dilthey, Schmoller, Windelband, Rickert etc. He fights, however, against it on the other hand, eliminating the irrationality romanticism. Through this, he forms his identity and ‘unique personality’ as a rationalistic scholar. At the same time, Weber forms his identity and ‘unique personality’ as an active politician and political thinker, following the tradition of the historical school and historicism (Historismus) in that he grasps history as a question of politics: He tries to fulfill the demands of politics of the time which are different from the conservatism that dominated this tradition. Unlike scholar-Weber, however, politician-Weber cannot completely disconnect from the irrational momentum of romanticism inherent in the tradition of the historical school and historicism (Historismus).

• Autnor : Byung-Kon Kim
• Publisher : The Journal of Humanities and Social science
• Publication : The Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 21
• Volume : 13(6)
• Date : December 2022

Abstract :This study seeks a political and philosophical basis for the definition of migration. The main purpose of this paper is to explore political and philosophical solutions to this issue. The method of research focuses on analyzing existing political and philosophical discourse on the issue of migrant membership. This study analyzes the theories on the hospitality of membership and diagnoses their limitations. This research also pay attention to the political theory of Benhabib who suggests the most convincing alternative on migration and membership. This study emphasizes Benhabib’s concept of democratic iteration and diagnoses its potential and limitations. Benhabib’s theory is recognized for its significance in that it accepts innate contradictions in the issue of migrant membership and seeks realistic alternatives. However, it should be complemented further by accepting the norms of global citizenship or such afterwards.