“It may be said of Korea that there is no other country of comparable significance concerning which so many people are ignorant”

1. POLITICAL CULTURE AND
TRADITIONS
YANG SUNGCHUL
“It may be said of Korea that there is no other
country of comparable significance concerning
which so many people are ignorant” (Osgood)
By Dario BERREBI, 2011-
03-10

2. More confucianist than the Chinese
 Centralized bureaucratic state(s) early on (Han
dyn.)
 Korea’s pacifism and elite political culture
 Chinese Legist School: law as an “arm of the
state”, politics and social behavior.
 The shrimp between the two whales
(submission and sovereignty:
mohwa/sadae, Japan, barbarian tribes)
 A contradictory approach on the stability

3. Chinese and Confucian influences
Civil service examination:
文
Social class and hierarchy:
Talent and education
Literati, farmers, artisans
and merchants
Social relations, social order:
Rights, obligations, heredity
Rites, symbolism and culture: and legitimacy
Interpretation and civilization
 And Buddhism for the spiritual realm… and politics
A Korean Identity

4. Reflexive but Korean-centered view
 South Koreans’ “weak commitment to and respect
for democratic values and beliefs”
 “Common authoritarian root deeply imbedded in the
Korean historical and cultural psyche”?
 Rivalries and factionalism: typically Korean ?
 Centralized system: root of
stagnation, inequality, arrogance, rigidity, but also
efficiency and expertise
 A history of institutions
 Modernity and social-darwinism
 An irreducible core of “koreanness”?