Moral Authoritarianism: Neighborhood Associations in the Three Koreas, 1931–1972

Shinyoung Kwon

Published by University of Hawaii Press 2024

Moral Authoritarianism

Neighborhood Associations in the Three Koreas, 1931–1972

Shinyoung Kwon

In the series Hawai'i Studies on Korea

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824896201

Overview
Contents

About this book

Moral Authoritarianism offers a new perspective on the three modern Korean states—the Japanese colonial state, South Korea, and North Korea—by studying neighborhood associations during the four war decades (1930s–1960s). The existing historiography perceives the three states in relation to imperialism and to the Cold War, thus emphasizing their differences by political changes. By shifting the focus from national policy to local society, this book instead reveals their deep similarities. Neighborhood associations dated back to the premodern Chosŏn period (1392–1910), when they were used to assist local governance. They faded in significance until the colonial government established “patriotic neighborhood associations” in 1938 for its war against China. Through analysis of government documents from the three Koreas and additional sources that include diaries, leaflets, newspapers, and even fiction, Moral Authoritarianism explores neighborhood associations as a site of negotiation between families, local society, and the central government; exposing the moral authoritarian structure present in all three Koreas.

Colonial neighborhood associations, tasked with the national mobilization of local Koreans, advanced programs of mass enlightenment that privileged state interests over individual rights, in the process blurring the line between morality and state authority and superimposing patriarchal familial dynamics on societal relations. Despite their different ideological orientations, the neighborhood associations of two postliberation Koreas shared the same enlightenment mission with their earlier forms, and this commonality is critical to understanding the authoritarian direction taken by South and North Korea. The neighborhood association entrusted each state with promoting community-based morality and spirit of voluntarism as an alternative to amoral laissez-faire capitalism and the individual right-based West. Consequently, the state retained its supremacy over the populace at the most basic level of community organization, and Koreans were encouraged to respond to state calls, culminating into two authoritarianisms of the 1970s—Korean style democracy and “our own style” socialism.

Author / Editor information

Kwon Shinyoung :

Shinyoung Kwon received a PhD in history from the University of Chicago and did postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge.Shinyoung Kwon received a PhD in history from the University of Chicago and did postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Tables and Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Abbreviations Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: Patriotic Neighborhood Associations in Colonial Korea
1. The Birth of Patriotic Neighborhood Associations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
2. The Colonial Politics of Naming Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
3. At the Intersection of Family Indoctrination and Opportunities for Women Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Part II: Citizens’ Neighborhood Associations in South Korea
4. Reborn into Citizens’ Neighborhood Associations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
5. The Summer of 1950 The Two Faces of NAs Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	133
6. The Demise of Local Autonomy during the Postwar Recovery Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Part III: The Demise of Local Autonomy during the Postwar Recovery
7. Fatherland and People, 1945–1953 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
8. Into the Socialist Patriarchal Space Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
9. “ People’s Neighborhood Associational Life” in the 1960s Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	252
Epilogue: The Two Constitutional Amendments of December 1972 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	279
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	299
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	373
Hawaii Studies on Korea Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	375

Language: English
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 392
Illustrations
- Other: 5 b&w illustrations
Keywords: Authoritarianism; Asian Studies; Korea; Asian History

eBook

Published: November 30, 2023
ISBN: 9780824896201