The Definitions of Individuality and ROK Kungmin (國民) in the Political Philosophy of the Incipient Republic of Korea
Journal Title: International Journal of Korean History - Year 2011, Vol 16, Issue 1
Abstract
ying the ROK’s aseity. And there still remained the threat of popular practices. The South Korean people got indulged in things concerned with the individual self and were indifferent to state affairs and the ROK. In the face of this popular mentality, the ROK had to define individuality and kungmin in order to pull its kungmin out from their individual worlds into the public sphere of the state and state affairs. For this purpose, the ROK ruling elite presented their own definition of the individual as a national and state being who could not exist without the nation and the state. This meant that individuality was relegated to “secondary status” in relation to “a supreme society” viz. the state. The identification of the individual as an existing only within the statelaid the ground for the state project of producing ROK kungmin. The patriotic deed, according to ROK political philosophy, was a way to realize one’s own nature, completing one’s self. This meant that kungmin came to be defined as a public and “organic existence which, overcoming ego, unifies itself in the state doctrine”and as “an unified body of individuality and totality, the individual person and the state under the national spirit”. This definition offered the R. O. K. ideational and cultural resources available to the political body not only for its security interest but also for its statehood. It supplied the South Korean polity with the discursive resources which would help the political entity to transform South Korean people into ROK kungmin necessary for the full and safe mobilization of the people for the ROK’s agendas of its security and development. The discursive resources could relieve the ROK of the dangers of resorting to oppressive means and denying popular sovereignty, protecting the ROK’s modern statehood whose fundamental political criterion was believed to be popular sovereignty. In this sense, we can say that the definition lent the ROK discursive support to its assumption of modern statehood. This constituted the historical meaning of the definition to the part of the ROK.
Authors and Affiliations
Chong-myong Im
Keywords
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