한·중·일 3국 사회의 의사소통 구조 비교 - 동아시아 민주주의의 발전 방향 모색

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This empirical research is to analyze the process of establishing and consolidating democracy in Korea, China and Japan as well as to make its cross-regional comparisons for social․political implications for democracy with focus on the communication structures of families, firms and civil societies. This research project is designed to facilitate an interdisciplinary research approach that brings together area studies, political science, sociology, history, and philosophy. Taken together, the interdisciplinary research integrates the humanities with the behavioral sciences. The interdisciplinary research not only surveys the introduction and establishment of democratic system and life empirically, but also reconstructs the normative foundations of democracy theoretically.
The research on the degree and property of democracy in Korea, China, and Japan is a pre-requisite to the regional community building. Since this research was designed to measure the degree of realizing democracy in the world of appearances in communicative everyday practice, we have analyzed the communication structures of such non-state sectors as families, firms and civil societies. The focus of our attention determines how and to what extent the communication structure of private lives, economic activities and civic lives in the public spheres can contribute to the establishment and consolidation of democracy in Korea, China and Japan. The main purpose of our research is to find how different the communication structure of families, firms and civil societies in the three countries is from that of the West and to analyze its implications for democracy. This research also attempts to complement the Western model of communication action based on rationality and logic or to present the East Asian model of democratic communication action. For those purposes, we have modeled a two-dimensional approach. Modeling a two-dimensional approach, we review the characteristics of communication structures in families, firms and civil societies on the one hand and private lives, economic activities and civic lives in the public spheres. The two-dimensional approach is sought to determine the possibility of democracy in the sector of social life on the subjective base.
The empirical, reflective and interdisciplinary research on families is a primary importance to analyze the East Asian communication action and its structure. The typical social space for communication actions is the public sphere of civil society. In the public sphere, citizens can take part in the open discussion of all issues of general concern in which consensus is achieved to influence the public authorities. However, the space for family is the private sphere grounded on the ties of love and blood rather than the public sphere for the open discussion. The firms are spaces for employers to gain profits and for employees to get their living by their labor. The logic behind the firms is not for the open and public discussion. That is the logic of money. The 'democratization of the family' or 'democratic family' means the same values as driven out of the public spheres, that is, equality, mutual respect, autonomy, decision-making through communication, freedom from violence, and so on. Most of the discussion in this research concentrated on the factors leading toward establishment and consolidation of democracy, that is, the relationship between the communication structure appreared in the world of everyday practic and the establishment and consolidation of democracy in Korea, China and Japan. We then proceed to the crucial question of how unique East Asian communication structure is, to what degree it is different from the Western structure, and whether they are compatible with each other.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

본 연구는 한․중․일 3국의 민주주의의 정착과 공고화 과정을 분석하고 그것의 사회․정치철학적 함의를 논의하기 위해 가족, 기업, 시민사회라는 3영역의 의사소통 구조를 연차적으로 경험적으로 비교․분석하는 데 있다. 이를 위해서 이 연구 한․중․일 지역학, 정치학, 사회학, 역사학, 철학 전공자들의 공동 연구로 진행되었다. 이 지역의 다양한 사회 영역에서 근대화가 가져온 민주적 제도와 생활의 도입, 정착을 구체적이고 실증적으로 조사하는 한편 이와 동시에 동아시아 민주주의에 대한 인문학적 반성을 제시하는 두 작업이 학제적으로 연관되어 있다. 한․중․일 동아시아 3국의 민주주의 발전 정도와 특성에 대한 연구는 이 지역의 공동체 건설을 위해 필수적인 부분이다. 본 연구는 생활 방식으로서의 민주주의가 실현되는 모습은 무엇보다 의사소통 구조에서 찾을 수 있다고 보고, 가족, 기업, 시민사회에서 이 의사소통 구조를 분석한 것이다. 본 연구의 목적은, 무엇보다 서구의 근대와 다른 동아시아 3국의 근대화 과정에서 가족, 기업, 시민사회 3영역의 독특한 의사소통 구조를 발굴해내고, 그것의 민주주의적 함의를 분석하는 데 있다. 이러한 연구 관심에서 연구 대상은 전체적으로 이원적으로 구성된다.