Abstract
The debates in the past have focused on the question of whether Confucianism is in conflict or compatible with democracy. In recent years there has been an attempt to go beyond these two conventional models and explore alternative ways of thinking. Sungmoon Kim, a Korean scholar has pushed the intellectual inquiry further in developing a hybrid model of Confucian democracy. This chapter examines the role of Confucianism in different stages of South Korea’s democratization and tests three intellectual models: namely, the conflictive, compatible, and hybrid approaches to the relationship between Confucianism and democracy. Of these models, special attention is given to Sungmoon Kim’s new theoretical hybrid model of Confucian democracy, followed by my critique. While the chapter focuses on the case of South Korea, the discussion is framed and informed by a comparative perspective of Confucian Democracy to find and confirm general trends, as well as highlight patterns and political differences that the case of South Korea demonstrates.
The author has used some materials from the previous two articles (He, 2010, 2020) with substantive revision, addition, and update.
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He, B. (2022). Confucianism and Democratization in South Korea: A Comparative Perspective. In: Howe, B. (eds) Society and Democracy in South Korea and Indonesia. Security, Development and Human Rights in East Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06267-4_2
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