Western-Centrism and Contemporary Korean Political Thought by Jung In Kang

Author:Jung In, Kang
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books, a division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2012-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Part III

Contemporary Korean

Political Thought

Chapter 7

Pristine versus Secondary Modernization

In part III, the influence Western-centrism has exerted upon the shaping and interpretation of contemporary Korean political thought will be examined; then in part IV, various strategies to “overcome” Western-centrism will be explored. Of course, an accurate understanding of the evolution of contemporary Korean political thought requires a more comprehensive investigation and analysis of the variables that have influenced the turbulent and complex changes Korean society has undergone since the late nineteenth century when Joseon Korea had to open itself with the intrusion of Western powers into East Asia. This task must include a proper understanding of the influence that Western-centrism has exercised upon the ideological terrain of contemporary Korean politics. In connection with this, the most conspicuous characteristic seems to be the prevailing interpretations of contemporary Korean politics—regardless of whether they have been made by foreign or domestic, leftist or rightist scholars—which have tended to explain liberalism, democracy, conservatism, and other political ideologies in Korea in terms of the “absence” of, or “deviance” from, what is “Western,” a phenomenon which I propose to be a result of the overwhelming influence of Western-centrism.[1]

Thus in this section I will investigate the development of contemporary Korean political thought, which has been interwoven with the meta-ideology of Western-centrism, by focusing on the evolution of conservatism and democracy. In this short introductory chapter I discuss general aspects of these ideologies in terms of my own distinction between “pristine/original” and “secondary/derivative” modernization, which is devised to overcome the conventional Western-centric interpretation of binary opposition between “normal” and “deviant” categories.

The prevailing tendency to understand contemporary Korean political thought in terms of the absence of, or deviance from, what is Western would appear to be derived from the academic internalization of Western-centrism, i.e., the conscious or unconscious tendency of scholars to explain conservatism and democracy in Korea by treating Western concepts and experiences as universal standards, and articulating the differences between Western concepts and experiences and their Korean counterparts by essentializing and creating hierarchical—superior and inferior—categories. If the often accepted “Western = objective = universal” equation is the foundation of our analysis, then Korean political thought, which naturally displays significant differences from Western thought, is interpreted as an Orientalistic manifestation of its Western counterpart—its “absence” or “deviation.” As a result, Korean scholars seem to have reached the conclusion that, at worst, there is no proper form of conservatism, liberalism, or democracy in Korea—or, at best, only deviations from them. Accordingly, while Western political thought and institutions are regarded as sound and normal, Korean political thought and institutions are considered pathological and abnormal.

As examined in detail in the preceding chapters, this logic is also embedded in Huntington’s Western-centric argument regarding the relationship between Confucianism and democracy in East Asia. According to Huntington, democracy in East Asia is not possible insofar as Confucianism remains intact, since the former and the latter are in a contradictory relation. In addition, even if democracy should ever be introduced in East Asia where Confucianism is predominant,

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