Suchergebnisse

AbstractOn 19 December 2012, Park Geun-Hye won the presidential election in Korea. How should we understand the surprising comeback of 'the strong man's daughter' in a country that has been touted as having experienced a successful transition from dictatorship to democratization? To answer this question, it is necessary to reformulate modernization theory, of which Korea has been cited as a 'dream case'. Modernization theory is overly process-oriented; a process of economic growth leads to a successful democratization with a temporal gap. However, when we take into account the question of agency, which was missing in modernization theory, a series of interesting questions arise. First, who led the process of modernization in the Korean case? Second, who led the process of democratization? Finally, what happens if the temporal gap between modernization and democratization is relatively short so that 'modernizers' and 'democratizers' occupy the same political landscape? In such a scenario, we should expect a society deeply divided between the two agencies of modernization theory. The recent return of 'the strong man's daughter' is the latest symptom of increasing social divisions between modernizers and democratizers in contemporary Korean society.

Although most North Koreans say 'yes' in front of power to avoid trouble, they murmur something different behind its back. The main goal of this paper is to investigate the 'hidden transcripts' of the ordinary powerless in contemporary North Korean society. Based on refugee testimonies, the paper examines how mere mortals question, mock, and challenge official rhetoric of the regime at the ever-prospering markets. In particular, a discourse analysis of 'those who think differently' and a practice analysis of 'those who act differently' are provided. The long-term effects of hidden transcripts of the ordinary powerless on the evolution of the North Korean system are discussed in the conclusion. (Pac Rev/GIGA)

For two decades, Pyongyang has consistently signaled its willingness to denuclearize if the United States abandons all hostility and agrees to a peace treaty. Otherwise, Pyongyang will adopt 'self-defense' measures leading to nuclear armament. Adapted from the source document.

The fledgling democracy of Russia is facing many challenges. Perhaps the most dangerous of all is the rise of an aggressive chauvinistic nationalism. Initially, political analysts regarded it as a "recent" phenomenon which was filling in the ideological vacuum left by communism. As time went on, however, scholars began to grasp its deep historical roots and investigate its ideological evolution during the Soviet period. In this process, they tended to focus on the "legitimate" domains of the Soviet system – such as the official press, the literary field of socialist realism, and so on – in order to investigate how "the Russian idea" overtly coexisted or even covertly prospered within the boundaries of officially sanctioned ideology. The main goal of this paper is to bring a new dimension to our understanding of contemporary Russian nationalism, by approaching the whole phenomenon from below. While focusing on the Soviet period, this paper traces the ideological evolution of Slavophiles and their selective degeneration into chauvinism at the social level. In particular, it analyzes the underground ideological field of samizdat – uncensored illicit publications – where Slavophiles played a significant role. In this way, we can hear the "unfiltered" voices of rising Russian nationalists during the Soviet era.

In this investigation of the response to the inequality of Stalinist Russia from the perspective of the Soviet populace, the author argues that Soviet attempts to silence criticism resulted in the development of three distinct ideological trends that were expressed in the free domain of the samizdat. The phenomena of the samizdat network are described, & the themes & contents of the samizdat archive are characterized as the return of society's right to make judgments. The democrats' perspectives on inequality & capitalism are described, & the loss of direction due to imprisonment is explained. The emergence of slavophiles as advocates of Russian equality, independence within the Soviet Union, & Russocentric chauvinism is described. The opinions that evolved from the sense of betrayal of Bolshevik promises & the October Revolution are concluded to have been expressed through the crucial social locus of the samizdat in a variety of complex ideas & visions, as well as old bigotries. J. Harwell