The Structural Factors of the Failure in the Revolutionary Movements
-the Neo-left of US in around 1970 and the left of Korea in the late 1980s-
Lee, Changhee
Department of Political Science
Graduate School, Kyungpook National University
Taegu, Kor...
The Structural Factors of the Failure in the Revolutionary Movements
-the Neo-left of US in around 1970 and the left of Korea in the late 1980s-
Lee, Changhee
Department of Political Science
Graduate School, Kyungpook National University
Taegu, Korea
(supervised by Professor Yoon, Yong-Hee)
This thesis is designed to analyze the structural reasons of the failure in the revolutionary movements about which the Neo-left of US in around 1970 and the leftists of Republic of Korea in the late 1980s brought. The success of revolution means structural changes in the whole society. Therefore, we need to analyze the structural factors to figure out the reason why revolutionary movements failed. US and Korea went by way of feudalism and the governments has led the development of capitalism through their history. Democracy was not obtained by people's struggle and resistance but already reflected on the principles of constitutionalism as of the foundations of the countries. This distinguishes the two countries' unique flow of political histories from Europe's experience.
In terms of an international politics, the two countries commonly have a peculiar history that the two put up a hard fight with communist countries, distinguished from the other western capitalist countries. Hence, this thesis is taking the way to analyze and examine the problems as follows;
Firstly, I will discuss basic concepts in order to learn the factors of the movement's structural failure. At this point, the meanings of the structural factors such as a nation, ruling coalition, international relation, and hegemony were brought out.
Secondly, I will study how the structural factors could influence on the actual politics and restrict the movements, tracking on the historical evidences.
Finally, the reasons of the two countries' failing in the movements will be compared and scrutinized. Form this, theoretical implications will be deduced.
While comparing cases of both countries, I centered on the points below.
The first one is a government violence and the role of a ruling coalition which are the core of the structural factors.
The second one is the circumstances of international politics restricting both countries' revolutionary movements. Korea had not been free from its partitioned situation until the late 1980s. US' sending troops to Vietnam not only created the new-left, but also became the start of the fall of the party.
The last one is that the social and political hegemony in the revolutionary movements was detrimental to the revolutionary movement force.
Analyzing the structural factors of the failure on the basis of comparing and examining these facts, a nation's strong role, specially in US and Korea, is found. The leading role of a strong nation has interacted with other factors such as a conservative working class, cold mood in international relations and powerful government violence, and characterized the politics of the two nations.
Even though the movements of the two have not resulted in fundamental changes of the systems, we cannot say the influence is weak. If the neo-left's movement had not existed, so called 'neo-social movement', related to environment, feminism, and homosexuality, would not be flourishing like today. In Korea, the unprecedentedly brisk grass-roots movement starts from the reflection on a radical line in 1980s.