Abstract:
The power of the president is a concept which is largely cultural and historically constructed. Although the prominent scholar Richard Neustadt claims that "presidential power is no more than the power to persuade," in South Korea, it has become far greater through the country's peculiar blend of history and culture. The Korean War and the influence of the Cold War, the prevalent authoritarianism, security threats from North Korea and the Confucian tradition, have all contributed strongly to the emergence of a strong presidency. From its first days in 1948 and the successive authoritarian regimes to the democratic days of 1987, South Korea's political system has fostered the power of its president. But if power relies on each president's individual will and capacity, their personal ability is still firmly embedded in the state's historical and cultural context. Thus, every president since 1948 has exercized substantial power in most state affairs, much greater than Neustadt would concede. In the past, the South Koreans' long-term experience of authoritarianism persuaded them to leave their destiny in the president's controlling hands. Hence, even though the country modelled its presidential system on that of the United States, the actual power of its president is much greater than that of the American president and from the outset South Korea developed a presidential system all of its own.
Abstract:
In 1920s and 1930s colonial Korea, the practice of purchasing and publishing chokpo, the genealogical record of family lieange, became widespread. This trend was considered a strange phenomenon to reform-minded Korean intellectuals, since chokpo was seen as a symbol of past morality—a product of obsolete familism that contributed to Chosŏn Korea's collapse. Korea's familism, symbolized by chokpo, was hence recognized as an obstacle to the formation of nationhood necessary for rebuilding Korea: familism precluded the creation of a "one nation" identity. Despite the criticism, the Korean people's desire for chokpo did not abate but was strengthened by publishing companies and their brokers. The most fundamental reason for the increase in the desire for chokpo was the family system implemented by the Japanese colonial authority. The patrilineal succession of the household and the surname system, universally enforced to all Koreans under the colonial family system, were similar to the traditional family culture of upper class yangban. The colonial family system thus gave rise to the spread and enjoyment of yangban culture, which, in turn, resulted in the chokpo publishing surge. Eventually, the family system established by the Japanese colonial authority led to the universal acceptance of the patrilineal system by all Koreans. This acceptance strengthened the cultural identity of Koreans based on patrilineage, which served as the foundation of Korea's cultural nationalism
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