• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.137-167
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• 2024

This study sought to explain the reasons why the civic education bill failed to be enacted as many as 13 times. What we discovered as a result of our research is, first, the absence of a legislative strategy by the minority member of the national assembly on this bills. The Citizenship Education Bill was a controversial bill with great potential for ideological conflict, and after the 19th National Assembly, this bill was promoted by a minority of a specific political party. The Democratic Party's sponsoring lawmakers did not use active legislative strategies, such as exerting influence within the party to have these bills adopted as the party's platform, or developing them into major pledges for the general and presidential elections. Second, there is a consistent passive response from civic groups as well as lawmakers who signed the bill in an unfavorable public opinion environment. During the legislative process, opposing opinions were overwhelming, including concerns about the spread of leftist ideology, waste of budget and organization, and violation of neutrality and fairness in education. In addition, the passive attitude of field teachers and civic groups, who should be in charge of civic education, also served as a background for the legislative failure. Third, due to a lack of sharing of reliable information on recent theoretical research and global policy trends among stakeholders, legislation through an agreement between the ruling and opposition parties failed.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.5-29
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• 2018

This paper aims at making an assessment about the first year of the Moon Jae-in government. President Moon was elected amid political insecurity over the impeachment of then-president Park Geun-hye. However, the Moon administration settled in fairly smoothly despite no transition period of presidential power. Political and economic stability was soon restored, and the tensions between the US and North Korea over the North's nuclear weapons program were, to some extent, managed along with the agreement of the North-South summit and the US-North Korea summit. Pyeongchang hosted the 2018 winter olympics and paralympics successfully. Moon continued very positive approval ratings of higher than 70%. However, he has something to be desired. His leadership seems to rely heavily on a limited number of close staff in the Blue House, alienating the governing the Minjoo Party of Korea. He should build better relationship with opposition parties particularly given a divided government. Rectification of the lingering negative practices should also produce institutional solutions. Above all, Moon should carefully watch out to prevent scandals over corruption and power abuse around him and his family, which would lead to a precipitous decline of the approval ratings and the abrupt weakening of the leadership.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.91-118
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• 2016

As all are aware, the results of the Malaysia 12th General Election (GE-12) in 2008 have surprised many. Not only the dominant parties Barisan Nasional (BN) were shocked by the loss of significant numbers of seats but for the first time in the history of Malaysia politics, vis-${\grave{a}}$-vis, electoral affairs, they were denied a two-thirds majority in the Parliament. Notwithstanding the opposition parties such as Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR: The People's Justice Party) that form the opposition coalition called Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance: PR), has come to a surprised with the GE-12 result, in which they not even think that were able to challenge hegemonic politics of BN, managed to capture and formed a government at the state level namely Kedah, Penang, Perak, and Selangor, except Kelantan which has been under the control of PAS since the 1990 general election. This article aims to analyze whether Sabah as a "fixed deposit"state is still relevant in understanding the continuity and survival of the BN political hegemony in the context of Malaysia political developments post-13th general election.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.8 no.5
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• pp.459-468
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• 2022

This study searched and analyzed news and information on the Korea-U.S. Summit to explore which political agenda is spreading among Korean newspapers and social media. The result of the analysis revealed that, on the one hand, the conservative-leaning newspaper, Chosunilbo, covered the unresolved issue between two countries. The principal source of news was the opposition party. On the other hand, the progressive-leaning newspaper, Kyunghany Sinmun, highlighted President Moon's visit to the United States and described the visit to the United States as an achievement. In this paper, the principal source of news is the ruling party. Both conservative and the progressive newspapers did not present a negative view of the United States. In the case of Chosunilbo, it mentioned that foreign policy priority of President Biden is human rights in North Korea. If the two countries do not solve this issue, the relationship between Korea and the United States will not develop further. Second, I searched YouTube videos about the Korea-U.S. summit and conducted a network analysis to understand the influence of YouTube videos and explore their relationship the each other. The results of the analysis revealed that the 10 most influential videos portrayed the Moon government positively. These videos held the achievement of the visit to the United States in highly esteem and framed it positively, similarly to the progressive newspaper.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.32
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• pp.109-136
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• 2019

The purpose of this study is to look at the concept of Gaebyeok as used by Kang Jeungsan (姜甑山) from a civilizational perspective. The combination of East Asian civilization during the period of Korea's port-opening and the subsequent inflow of Western powers with material civilization all at the forefront in the late Joseon Korea, served as the driving force for a new civilizational transition. Unlike the Chuk-sa Party and the Gae-hwa Party, modern Korean religions that emphasized Gaebyeok also responded to Western civilization and suggested a new view of civilization. Kang Jeung-san, resisting discrimination and oppression, presented a civilization built upon mutual beneficence while criticizing Western civilizations which centered on reason. Amid this process of the spread of modern Western civilization, Jeungsan declared the construction of a new civilization to the people who were negatively impacted by various social factions, such as class and gender discrimination, political corruption, exploitation via political corruption, and the inflow of Western powers. Jeungsanist Thought developed criticisms of materialism and human alienation, and this resulted in the claim of Gaebyeok. This was an expression of efforts to build a new civilization that aimed to harmonize, integrate, and thrive. The new civilization envisioned by Jeungsan was that of a society run according to mutual beneficence, and it can be summarized as a 'Civilization of Harmonious Union' that integrates philosophical thought and civilizational models of both East and West. This could also be referred to a 'Civilization of Public-commons and Harmony between Divine Beings and Human Beings (神人公共).' The life of Jeungsan was a life spent in the service of curing the world to save the lives of humanity. Since then, his 'movement of mutual beneficence' as observed in Mugeuk-do and Taegeuk-do were also efforts to build the new civilization envisioned by Jeungsan.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.17 no.8
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• pp.80-89
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• 2017

Television viewing affects viewers' attitudes and opinions on their political issues. Since the beginning of General Programming TV services in 2011, they are criticized of their politically biased programming. In order to investigate the effect of General Programming TV on voters' behavior, we analyzed whether or not there is a change in the voting behavior of the conservative parties among the areas with high and low TV ratings of general programming TV. Based on the result of 18th presidential election in December 2012, we could not find any difference in voting behavior on the Saenuri party among the areas with high and low ratings of general programming TV channels. However, in the 6th provincial election in June 2014, while the voting shares of the Saenuri party were higher in the areas with high ratings of TV Chosun, Channel A, and JTBC than in those areas with low ratings.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.31
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• pp.9-49
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• 2005

This research analyzes contents of international news in the North Korean newspapers to examine the relationships between foreign policy of the labor party and propaganda of foreign affairs. The results show that international news of the Rodong shinmun and Minjoo Chosun as the ideological apparatus reflects the recent changes of foreign policy of the Kim Jung-Il regime, aiming at the successful control and mobilization of the people. However, the coverage difference between two newspapers has not been found, which means that the press control of the state is routinized. The relationships between political power and the press in North Korea has been discussed from the perspective of international communication.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.50
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• pp.139-169
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• 2016

Nakron School of the ruling Noron Party in late Joseon Dynasty was at the helm of state with Neo-Confucian ideology and it came out of being obsessed with conventional 'spiritual' aspects and changed both political and academic atmosphere with interests in 'matters.' The power leading such a change was scholars in Seoksil Seowon (石室書院) which centered around Kim Won-Haeng (金元行). However, except for few progressive scholars-Bukhak scholars (北學論者), most of Nakron scholars secretly acknowledged the actuality of Qing Dynasty but they failed to get out of old Neo-Confucian traditions. It was difficult for them to accept Bukhak theory which jeopardized the existence of administration. They sought plans both to keep Neo-Confucian traditions and Sinocentrism in Joseon and to reach the cultural level of Qing Dynasty and in that process, they recognized restoration of the statecraft study (經世學) summarized on Seongridaejeon as an alternative. Hwang Yun-Seok is a representative Neo-Confucian scholar in such response of Nakron. He rediscovered value of the science of xiangshu in the Neo-Confucian category and highlighted importance of Seongridaejeon yet again.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.207-231
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the intergovernment relationship on the local government's social welfare expenditure. The data of 230 local governments from 2003 to 2008 were analyzed with the PCSE(Panel Corrected Standard Errors) Model of Beck and Kats. The results were as follow. First, financial transfer from the higher governments increase the social welfare expenditure of the local governments. Second, the party structure, that is the political relationships among local, regional, and central governments, affect the social welfare expenditure of the local governments. Third, the local governments compete each other to expand the social welfare expenditure in Korea. These results suggest that the relationship of local governments with the higher ones as well as the community factors is important in Korea, where the centralization is still strong in the local autonomy system, to understand the development of social welfare.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.245-271
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to examine and assess the major characteristics and changes of politics, economy, and diplomacy in Thailand in 2016. Specifically, it reviewed the New Constitution that was passed in 2016, the confrontation between different political forces and the trend of military regime around the New Constitution, and the political instability caused by the accession of the new king to the throne. This study also set out to figure out changes to the economy and foreign relations of the country, including its relations with South Korea, under the military regime and make predictions for the impact and future prospects of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's death on the politics and economy of the country. In 2016, the politics of Thailand took a step further toward the transfer of power to civil government and established a foundation for an authoritarian system. The draft of the New Constitution, which does not seem to be democratic, was approved by a referendum and enabled the military authorities to continue their political interventions, even after the general election. The New Constitution, in particular, reduces the power of political parties itself in addition to simply keeping the Thaksin's party in check; thus, anticipating ongoing conflicts between the military authorities and political parties. In this situation, the absence of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who used to play a decisive role in promoting the political stability of the country, and the accession of the new king to the throne raise concerns about the acceleration of political instability, which has continued after the coup and influenced the diplomatic relations of the country. Today, Thailand is distancing itself from Western nations that do not recognize the current military regime including the U.S.A. and EU member states and instead maintains a rapidly friendly and close relation with China. In 2016, the economy of Thailand made a gradual recovery rather than high growth. The death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej has exerted limited direct economic impacts only on individual consumption and tourism and is not likely to cause a recession. An economic crisis will, however, be unavoidable if the political confrontations escalate before the general election to transfer power to the civil government.