The development of a country’s civil society has typically been tied to the development of democracy: a vibrant civil society is indicative of a vibrant democracy. Why, then, has civil society emerged differently in South Korea, a country that democratized fairly recently, and Japan, a country that has been democratic since the end of the Second World War? I argue the origins of democracy in both states significantly contributed to the contrasting characters of civil society. In Japan, top-down democratization facilitated the development of a civil society with a strong link to the state for the majority of the 20th century, best viewed from the perspective of Gramsci. By contrast, the bottom-up democratization process in South Korea fostered a civil society where organizations monitor the state, best understood from the Tocquevillian perspective. Through comparative case analysis, this study endeavors to contribute to the literature on civil society by highlighting the ways in which democratization influences the trajectory of civil society.
AlagappaM (ed.) (2004) Civil Society and Political Change in Asia: Expanding and Contracting Democratic Space. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
2.
AndoT (2013) Japan’s New Left Movements: Legacies for Civil Society. London and New York: Routledge.
3.
ArmstrongCK (ed.) (2007) Korean Society: Civil Society, Democracy and the State. 2nd edn. New York: Routledge.
4.
AvenellSA (2009) Civil society and the new civic movements in contemporary Japan: Convergence, collaboration, and transformation. Journal of Japanese Studies35(2): 247–283.
5.
BarshayAE (1992) Imagining democracy in postwar Japan: Reflections on Maruyama Masao and modernism. Journal of Japanese Studies18(2): 365–406.
6.
ButtigiegJA (1995) Gramsci on civil society. Boundary 222(3): 1–32.
7.
ChatterjeeP (2004) The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World. New York: Columbia University Press.
8.
ChenK-H (2003) Civil society and Min-Jian: On political society and popular democracy. Cultural Studies17(6): 877–896.
9.
ChoH-Y (2000) Democratic transition and changes in Korean NGOs. Korea Journal40(2): 275–304.
10.
ChoiH (1991) The Societal Impact of Student Politics in Contemporary South Korea. Higher Education22(2): 175–188.
DiamondLKimB-K (eds) (2000) Consolidating Democracy in South Korea. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
13.
GaronS (2003) From Meiji to Heisei: The state and civil society in Japan. In: SchwartzFJPharrSJ (eds) The State of Civil Society in Japan. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 42–62.
14.
HedmanE-LE (2006) In the Name of Civil Society: From Free Election Movements to People Power in the Philippines. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.
15.
KimE (2009) The limits of NGO-government relations in South Korea. Asian Survey49(5): 873–894.
16.
KimJ-Y (2005) “Bowling together” isn’t a cure-all: The relationship between social capital and political trust in South Korea. International Political Science Review / Revue Internationale de Science Politique26(2): 193–213.
17.
KimS (2003) Civil society in democratizing Korea. In: KimSS (ed.) Korea’s Democratization. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 81–106.
18.
KimSS (ed.) (2003) Korea’s Democratization. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
19.
KingstonJ (2010) Contemporary Japan: History, Politics, and Social Change Since the 1980s. Chichester and Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
20.
KooH (2007) Engendering civil society: The role of the labor movement. In: ArmstrongCK (ed.) Korean Society: Civil Society, Democracy and the State. 2nd edn. New York: Routledge, pp. 73–94.
LeeJYiD (2018) Still a new democracy? Individual-level effects of social trust on political trust in South Korea. Asian Journal of Political Science26(2): 201–220.
23.
LeeN (2009) The Making of Minjung: Democracy and the Politics of Representation in South Korea. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
24.
MakotoI (1999) Japan’s civil society: An historical overview. In: YamamotoT (ed.) Deciding the Public Good: Governance and Civil Society in Japan. Tokyo and New York: Japan Center Intl Exchange, pp. 51–96.
25.
MoonS (2010) The interplay between the state, the market, and culture in shaping civil society: A case study of the people’s solidarity for participatory democracy in South Korea. The Journal of Asian Studies69(2): 479–505.
26.
MortonAD (2007) Unravelling Gramsci: Hegemony and Passive Revolution in the Global Political Economy. London: Pluto Press.
27.
OhJS (2012) Strong state and strong civil society in contemporary South Korea: Challenges to democratic governance. Asian Survey52(3): 528–549.
28.
ParkM (2008) Democracy and Social Change: A History of Korean Student Movements, 1980–2000. Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften.
29.
PekkanenR (2006) Japan’s Dual Civil Society: Members Without Advocates. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
30.
PempelTJ (1999) The developmental regime in a changing world economy. In: Woo-CumingsM (ed.) The Developmental State. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 137–181.
31.
PutnamRD (2000) Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Touchstone Books by Simon & Schuster.
32.
ScheinerE (2005) Democracy without Competition in Japan: Opposition Failure in a One-Party Dominant State. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
33.
SchreursM (2002) Democratic transition and environmental civil society: Japan and South Korea compared. The Good Society11(2): 57–64.
34.
SchwartzFJPharrSJ (eds) (2003) The State of Civil Society in Japan. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
35.
TeetsJC (2013) Let many civil societies bloom: The rise of consultative authoritarianism in China. The China Quarterly213: 19–38.
36.
Tocqueville Ade (1835) Democracy in America. London: Saunders and Otley.
37.
TsujinakaY (2003) From developmentalism to maturity: Japan’s civil society organizations in comparative perspective. In: SchwartzFJPharrSJ (eds) The State of Civil Society in Japan. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 83–115.
TsujinakaYPekkanenR (2007) Civil society and interest groups in contemporary Japan. Pacific Affairs80(3): 419–437.
40.
TsujinakaYChoeJ-YYamamotoHet al. (2007) Nihon no shimin shakai kouzou to seiji sanka: Jichikai, shakai dantai, NPO no zentaizou to sono seiji kanyo. [The structure of civil society in Japan and political participation: The overall picture of neighborhood associations, social associations, and nonprofit organizations and their political engagement]. Leviathan41: 7–44.
41.
UngerJChanA (1995) China, corporatism, and the East Asian model. The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs33: 29–53.
42.
YamamotoT (ed.) (1999) Deciding the Public Good: Governance and Civil Society in Japan. Tokyo and New York: Japan Center Intl Exchange.
43.
ZhuY (2011) ‘Performance legitimacy’ and China’s political adaptation strategy. Journal of Chinese Political Science16(2): 123–140.
