한국의 시민사회와 지역주의에 대한 비판적 고찰

The principal theme of this study is the insistence that we must consider the characteristics of civil society if we are to understand why party politics has been consistently deformed in Korea. The issue of party politics has been explained previously by the emphasis on institutional and cultural elements of the state. A careful consideration of Korean experience in this study suggests that a reduction to institutional mechanisms or cultural imposition would fail to capture the full range of factors affecting party politics. Based on the Western history of democratical development, this study examines the relationship between civil society and activities of political parties in Korea. One of the central claims in this process is that the actions of political parties in Korea are not fully affected by the cleavages of civil society within which they operate. It results from lack of pluralism in civil society and passive expression of self-interests of citizens. This study shows that political parties do not stay on a simple acceptance when they play in the market. Rather, they choose strategic means rationally. Thus this study insists that a reason for the serious conflict of regionalism in Korean politics is the result of rational choice made by political parties in modularized civil society.