Assessing the shifting qualities of democratic citizenship: The case of South Korea

The consolidation of nascent democratic rule requires ordinary citizens to have certain basic qualities of democratic citizenship. To understand these qualities, this study proposes and explicates the notion of citizen sophistication with regard to democratic politics in South Korea, a country widely regarded as one of the most successful new democracies. Analysis of the Korea Democracy Barometer surveys, 1996–2001, reveals that the proposed notion of sophistication about democratic politics can serve as a useful new tool for evaluating and monitoring the shifting qualities of democratic citizenship in newly democratizing countries. The same analysis also shows that Korea faces a gross deficiency and notable decline in the cognitive, affective and behavioural qualities of democratic citizenship. These findings seem to indicate that the challenge of promoting mass sophistication about democratic politics may constitute the most intractable task of democratization.     

Popular attitudes toward the South African electoral system

This article is based on a survey of popular attitudes towards the pure list system that is South Africa's proportional representation electoral system. While the reported findings are broadly positive there are some notable exceptions, located disproportionately among racial minorities and also among sizable numbers of black respondents. Pure proportional representation is unlikely to produce the values that the respondents say they most want from a voting system. The significance of the survey's findings is analysed and reasons are advanced for making changes to the electoral system. The government has opted to retain the status quo for the time being but in the longer term this could be negative for South Africa's democracy     

Political Party Finance in South Africa: Disclosure Versus Secrecy

Litigation initiated by the Institute for Democracy in Southern Africa against all political parties for the disclosure of donations initiated a debate over party-funding regulatory regimes. The case for disclosure and regulation emphasized the causal connection between secret funding and corruption as well as the weakening of democratic practice. An empirical assessment of these claims shows that secrecy has not brought about these predicted effects and that official institutions have been effective in uncovering and prosecuting political and other forms of corruption. Moreover, evidence is presented showing that the disclosure of donors' identities will prejudice smaller, opposition parties to the detriment of South Africa's multi-party democratic system. An appropriate regulatory regime for the country must emerge from a deliberative process, rather than a judicial decision, if it is to be effective. In addition, the regulations must balance transparency against the interests of smaller parties through innovative and country-specific monitoring mechanisms.     

L'évolution de la justice traditionnelle dans l'Afrique francophone

L'histoire du football Rwanda commence avec la colonisation du pays. En une cinquantaine d'années, ce jeu sport d'origine anglaise, en intégrant une société agro-pastorale et guerrière, est devenu une pratique culturelle locale. Comprendre ce phénomène nécessite d'articuler l'ancrage colonial d'une activité cosmopolite aux [ré]inventions culturelles locales suscitées par son implantation. Ce texte vise à montrer comment un jeu de balle, en traversant une société en cours d'occidentalisation, a marqué l'édification d'une modernité guerrière reçue et façonnée par les joueurs de l'époque. En traversant les transpositions ludiques d'enjeux sociaux et politiques plus larges, on observe que cette pratique, tout en participant du procès de "civilisation" que s'administra l'institution coloniale, constitua l'un des fers de lance de la lutte pour l'émancipation.     

Public perceptions of India’s role as an international development cooperation partner: domestic responses to rising ‘donor’ visibility

The literature on South–South Development Cooperation (ssdc) has grown exponentially in the past few years. One focus of analysis has been how domestic institutions and agendas shape the approaches to development cooperation of different Southern partners. However, few analysts to date have commented on how the ‘ordinary’ general public of these countries might perceive or assess their country’s role in international development. Through a study based on interviews and media analysis, this paper attempts to tease out the slim evidence currently available on ‘public’ attitudes in India, concentrating, for reasons explained, exclusively on elites and ‘middle classes’. It argues that, while some domestic criticism will certainly accompany the growing visibility of Indian development cooperation, the attractive blend of discursive positioning and material benefits may provide the Indian government with broad support for its growing investment and profile in international development, or at least offset a degree of criticism. At present there appears to be little public discussion about whether and how India’s external role relates to domestic poverty, or the nature of growth and ‘development’ that India is helping to stimulate in partner countries. The paper also discusses ‘boundary making’ with China through the public construction of Indian development cooperation.     

Discretion and Autonomy: Public Administrators’ Dilemmas in the Implementation of National Curriculum Statements

This study contributes to an understanding of teachers, as street-level bureaucrats in South Africa, and their relative discretion and autonomy in the implementation of public policies. We adopted a mixed-method approach that included in-depth interviews (5), observation (65 days), survey (26), and detailed fieldnotes (25 pages). Our findings demonstrate that teachers exercise discretion and autonomy in areas such as ignoring assessment protocols, following school rules and procedures, rescheduling concepts to be taught, and giving little attention to certain policy requirements. These results offer insights for the exercise of discretion and autonomy by teachers and other street-level bureaucrats.     

NGOs as Incubator of Participative Democracy in South Korea: Political,Voluntary, and Policy Participation

Abstract

This article is designed to examine the roles of Non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) in South Korea as an incubator of participative democracy and to review the evolution of their relationship with governments. The study is comprised of four parts. First, related literature on NGOs will be examined from three different perspectives: state‐civil society perspective, voluntary social service perspective, and policy perspective. Second, this essay will survey emerging roles of NGOs in promoting organized citizen participation in the three areas: political participation, voluntary social service participation, and policy participation. Third, recent governments' institutional efforts to support NGOs will be reviewed briefly. Finally, this paper will conclude with the implications for the future of government‐NGOs relationship in policy‐making processes.     

Small Business’ Place in the South Korean State–Society Relations

Korean small businesses have come a long way as sources of industrial power more important than heretofore credited. The nation's undemocratic dirigisme had largely slighted small businesses to the country's disadvantage. Although the government's policy bias against them started to change in the early 1980s, its support of them remained less than fully-fledged. Despite tough socio-economic conditions, however, both the first and second generation small entrepreneurs have strived to prove their self-worth as viable business enterprises and constantly—and increasingly over time—contributed to the incremental improvement of the economy. By shedding light on the little-known motivations, perceptions, and performances of the small business people, this article offers a more balanced and nuanced account of the past and present state of small businesses in the country, which provides a tentative basis for considering alternative vision for future development.     

The Timing of Split-Ticket Voting Decisions in Mixed Systems: Evidence from South Korea

Abstract

Although two-vote mixed legislative systems have proliferated globally, the factors contributing to split-ticketing in these cases remains poorly understood. Using survey data regarding South Korea's 2008 National Assembly election, this article addresses two questions: Is ticket-splitting in two-vote legislative systems influenced by the timing of one's vote decision and are late deciders more or less rational in their decision to ticket-split than early deciders? Empirical analysis finds that split-ticket voting under various specifications is more likely to be carried out by late deciders. Among split-ticket voters, however, late deciders are more likely to irrationally split their vote.