The Terminal Crisis of the "Participatory Government" and the Election of Lee Myung Bak

This paper examines the election of Lee Myung Bak through the terminal crisis of the Roh Moo Hyun government that preceded it. I start with an analysis of the election of Lee Myung Bak and the electoral strategies of the liberal-progressive bloc in the December 2007 election and then move on to deta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of contemporary Asia 2010-02, Vol.40 (1), p.22-43
Main Author: Doucette, Jamie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Conservatism
Democracy
democratisation
Democratization
Economic Change
Economic policy
Economic reform
Elections
Government
Government and politics
Heads of state
Lee Myung Bak
Local elections
Nationalism
neo-liberal reform
Neoliberalism
Political leaders
Political reform
Politics
Presidents
Progressivism
Reunification
Social activism
Social Movements
South Korea
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Summary:This paper examines the election of Lee Myung Bak through the terminal crisis of the Roh Moo Hyun government that preceded it. I start with an analysis of the election of Lee Myung Bak and the electoral strategies of the liberal-progressive bloc in the December 2007 election and then move on to detail how these strategies shed light on tensions within Korean progressive politics since the transition to democracy in 1987. These tensions inform what I shall call the "terminal crisis" of Roh's "participatory government." I argue that this crisis involves a problem of articulation within progressive politics between a politics of reunification and one grounded in egalitarian economic reform, including the lack of an alternative to the different forms of neo-liberalism embraced by both the Roh government and the conservative government of Lee Myung Bak. My hope is that thorough examination of these tensions that have informed the liberal-progressive bloc during the long decade since 1987 can spur reflection on the role of social movements in Korean democratisation and the dilemmas they face in crafting strategies for political and economic reform.
ISSN:0047-2336
1752-7554
DOI:10.1080/00472330903270338