150190 PS Controversy over the Korean Early Modernization and Its Modernity (2007W)

The emergence of democratization and modernization has played an important role in the transformation of the socioeconomic and political life of modern Korea. The forces and ideas that underlie these processes have been key factors in shaping the government policies. The ways these ideas and forces have helped to influence the political dynamics and outcomes in South Korea, since its economic development starting in early 1960's, are the primary focus for analysis in this course. Many Korean scholars have argued for a variant on the development first proposition: that a certain degree of authoritarianism-suppression of political parties and protection of the state from the pressures of competing interest groups-was necessary to take the hard political and economic decisions that produced the region's spectacular growth. Certainly there were many in Korea who believed that economic development required political stability, and the only guarantee of that stability was a strong central government wit the ability to take coercive measures against the political opposition and the business community. It would be so hard to argue that the suppression of political rights necessitated the violations of civil rights that occurred under these authoritarian administrations, such as the widespread political arrests, torture, and summary executions of the Park Chung-Hee and Chun Doo-Hwan years in South Korea. This course will so outline inequalities of modern Korea in politic-economical aspects, focusing attention on the comparison of Western modern societies. It will also pose a problem to Korean modernity secondly from the viewpoint of the cultural critic aspects. Therefore it will give us all kind of different theoretical approaches of modernity and look at their potential suitability to the Korean case. Students will gain a wide field of topic of the Korea's encounter with modernity, and they will be encouraged to engage modern Korean history from such comprehensive perspective.