Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T03:00:19.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Interplay between the State, the Market, and Culture in Shaping Civil Society: A Case Study of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy in South Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2010

Get access

Abstract

After the formal end of military rule in the late 1980s, a new type of voluntary association commonly called “citizens' organizations” emerged in Korean civil society. Pursuing progressive social change through legal and policy reforms, citizens' organizations became the voice of revived civil society in urban Korea and enjoyed public trust until the mid-2000s, when their influence began to wane. Using in-depth interviews and fieldwork data on the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), one of the most influential citizens' organizations, this paper examines how the specific social meanings of civil society informed the roles that the state and the market played in the rise and relative decline of the PSPD and how class and gender affected individual access to it. This focus on the interplay among culture, the state, and the market enables us to move beyond cultural relativism and liberal universalism concerning the theoretical and empirical debate on civil society.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

List of References

Alagappa, Muthiah, ed. 2004. Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, Robert, Grabb, Edward, and Curtis, James. 2006. “Trends in Civic Association Activity in Four Democracies: The Special Case of Women in the United States.” American Sociological Review 71 (3): 376400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 2006. Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Berry, Jeffrey M. 1999. “The Rise of Citizen Groups.” In Civic Engagement in American Democracy, ed. Skocpol, Theda and Fiorina, Morris P., 367–94. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Chakrabarty, Dipesh. 2000. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jang-jip, Choi. 2002. Minjuhwa ihuŭi minjujuŭi: han'guk minjujuŭiŭi posujŏk kiwŏnkwa wigi [Democracy after democratization: The conservative origins of Korean democracy and its crisis]. Seoul: Humanit'asŭ.Google Scholar
Crouch, Colin, Eder, Klaus, and Tambini, Damian, eds. 2001. Citizenship, Markets, and the State. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eder, Klaus. 2001. “Social Movement Organizations and the Democratic Order: Reorganizing the Social Basis of Political Citizenship in Complex Societies.” In Citizenship, Markets, and the State, ed. Crouch, Colin, Eder, Klaus, and Tambini, Damian, 213–37. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eliasoph, Nina. 1998. Avoiding Politics: How Americans Produce Apathy in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chun, Han. 2004. “Ch'amyŏyŏndaeŭi chojikkwa sŏngwŏn” [The organization and members of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy]. In Ch'amyŏwa yŏndaero yŏn minjujuŭiŭi sae chip'yŏng [New horizon for democracy opening through participation and solidarity], ed. Hong, Sŏng-t'ae, 87106. Seoul: Arŭke.Google Scholar
Hardacre, Helen. 1991. “Japan: The Public Sphere in a Non-Western Setting.” In Between States and Markets: The Voluntary Sector in Comparative Perspective, ed. Wuthnow, Robert, 217–42. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Il-p'yo, Hong. 2004. “Ch'amyŏyŏndae undong pangsigŭi kusŏngkwa pyŏnhwa” [The composition and change in the movement method of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy]. In Ch'amyŏwa yŏndaero yŏn minjujuŭiŭi sae chip'yŏng [New horizon of democracy opening through participation and solidarity], ed. Hong, Sŏng-t'ae, 107–30. Seoul: Arŭke.Google Scholar
Yun-gi, Hong. 2004. “Siminjŏk siljonŭi ch'ŏragjŏk somyo” [A philosophical portrayal of the citizen's existence]. In Ch'amyŏwa yŏndaero yŏn minjujuŭiŭi sae chip'yŏng [New horizon of democracy opening through participation and solidarity], ed. Hong, Sŏng-t'ae, 5783. Seoul: Arŭke.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P., and Harrison, Lawrence E.. 2000. Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Chŏng-hun, Kim. 2004. “Siminundong nonjaengkwa ch'amyŏyŏndae” [A debate on citizens' movements and the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy]. In Ch'amyŏwa yŏndaero yŏn minjujuŭiŭi sae chip'yŏng [New horizon of democracy opening through participation and solidarity), ed. Hong, Sŏng-t'ae, 3756. Seoul: Arŭke.Google Scholar
Ho-gi, Kim, and Tong-ch'ŏl, Chŏng. 2004. “Ch'amyŏyŏndaeŭi ŭisagyŏljŏnggujowa chojigunyŏngbangsik” [The PSPD's decision-making structure and management method]. In Ch'amyŏwa yŏndaero yŏn minjujuŭiŭi sae chip'yŏng [New horizon of democracy opening through participation and solidarity), ed. Hong, Sŏng-t'ae, 131–52. Seoul: Arŭke.Google Scholar
Koo, Hagen, ed. 1993. State and Society in Contemporary Korea. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lo, Clarence Y. H. 1992. “Communities of Challengers in Social Movement Theory.” In Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, ed. Morris, Aldon D. and Mueller, Carol McClurg, 224–47. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Macpherson, C. B. 1962. The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to Locke. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McCarthy, John D., and Zald, Mayer N.. 1973. The Trend of Social Movements in America: Professionalization and Resource Mobilization. Morristown, N.J.: General Learning Press.Google Scholar
Moon, Seungsook. 2002. “Carving Out Space: Civil Society and the Women's Movements in South Korea.” Journal of Asian Studies 61 (2): 473500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, Seungsook. 2003. “Redrafting Democratization through Women's Representation and Participation in the Republic of Korea.” In Korea's Democratization, ed. Kim, Samuel S., 107–34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moon, Seungsook. 2005. Militarized Modernity and Gendered Citizenship in South Korea. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Offe, Klaus. 1985. “New Social Movements: Challenging the Boundaries of Institutional Politics.” Social Research 52 (4): 817–69.Google Scholar
Pekkanen, Robert. 2003. “Molding Japanese Civil Society: State-Structured Incentives and the Patterning of Civil Society.” In The State of Civil Society in Japan, ed. Schwartz, Frank J. and Pharr, Susan J., 116–34. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD). 2004. Ch'amyŏyŏndae 10 nyŏnŭi kirok, 1994–2004 [Ten-year record of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy]. Seoul: PSPD.Google Scholar
Pharr, Susan J. 2003. “Conclusion: Targeting by an Activist State: Japan as a Civil Society Model.” In The State of Civil Society in Japan, ed. Schwartz, Frank J. and Pharr, Susan J., 316–36. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, Lucien. 1985. Asian Power and Politics: The Cultural Dimensions of Authority. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reis, Fábio W. 1996. “The State, the Market, and Democratic Citizenship.” In Constructing Democracy: Human Rights, Citizenship, and Society in Latin America, ed. Jelin, Elizabeth and Hershberg, Eric, 121–37. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Schlozman, Kay Lehman, Verba, Sidney, and Brady, Henry E.. 1999. “Civic Participation and the Equality Problem.” In Civic Engagement in American Democracy, ed. Skocpol, Theda and Fiorina, Morris P., 427–59. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Schwartz, Frank J., and Pharr, Susan J., eds. 2003. The State of Civil Society in Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 1999. “Advocates without Members: The Recent Transformation of American Civic Life.” In Civic Engagement in American Democracy, ed. Skocpol, Theda and Fiorina, Morris P., 416509. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 2003. Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
Somers, Margaret. 2001. “Romancing the Market, Reviling the State: Historicizing Liberalism, Privatization, and the Competing Claims to Civil Society.” In Citizenship, Markets, and the State, ed. Crouch, Colin, Eder, Klaus, and Tambini, Damian, 2348. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Strathern, Marilyn. 1992. “Between a Melanesianist and a Feminist.” In Reproducing the Future: Essays on Anthropology, Kinship and the New Reproductive Technologies, by Strathern, Marilyn, 6489. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Minh-Ha, Trinh T.. 1989. Woman, Native, Other: Writing Postcoloniality and Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Verba, Sidney, Schlozman, Kay Lehman, and Brady, Henry E.. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, Katherine Cramer. 2004. Talking about Politics: Informal Groups and Social Identity in American Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1995. “The Communitarian Critique of Liberalism.” In New Communitarian Thinking: Person, Virtues, Institutions, and Communities, ed. Etzioni, Amitai, 5270. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.Google Scholar
Watt, David Harrington. 1991. “United Sates: Cultural Challenges to the Voluntary Sector.” In Between States and Markets: The Voluntary Sector in Comparative Perspective, ed. Wuthnow, Robert, 243–87. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Weller, Robert P. 1999. Alternative Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press.Google Scholar
White, Gordon. 1996. In Search of Civil Society: Market Reform and Social Change in Contemporary China. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sang-ch'ŏl, Yun. 2004. “90 nyŏndae han'guksahoeŭi pyŏndongkwa ch'amyŏyŏndaeŭi pyŏnhwa panghyang” [Social change in the 1990s in Korea and the direction of change in the PSPD]. In Ch'amyŏwa yŏndaero yŏn minjujuŭiŭi sae chip'yŏng [New horizon of democracy opening through participation and solidarity], ed. Hong, Sŏng-t'ae, 2135. Seoul: Arŭke.Google Scholar