Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1999

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Political Science

Major Professor

Robert L. Peterson

Committee Members

Patricia K. Freeland, Robert A. Gorman, Kenneth H. Kim, Jeffrey Berejikian

Abstract

The primary objective of this study is to elucidate the nature of the Asian concept of human rights and to examine the interrelation between the process of economic growth and contingent human rights policies, using South Korea as a case study.

In the aftermath of the Cold War, several East Asian states in particular mounted a "challenge" to Western beliefs about human rights. Based on a successful economic growth and on the Confucian logic inherent in their tradition. East Asian states sought to redefine the concepts of human rights by questioning the applicability of universal human rights in different cultural, economic and socio-political settings.

Such an Asian concept of human rights has been supported for decades by several East Asian authoritarian leaders including those of Singapore, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the former ones of South Korea. In its most basic version, this "special" concept holds that economic development has to precede the full flowering of political and civil rights; that East Asians place greater value on the harmony of the community than on individual freedoms; and that individual states should be able to interpret international standards on human rights in accordance with their history, culture, political system, and level of economic development. These arguments are often labeled "soft authoritarianism" or "Asian-style" democracy.

The logic of Asian style democracy has been used by Asian repressive states to support the trade-off proposition: that a certain degree of authoritarianism is necessary to make the hard political and economic decisions that produce a state's spectacular growth, and that such growth will facilitate the promotion of human rights.

However, in recent decades the history of human rights in South Korea offers no promise or proof that civil and political rights will be extended to citizens upon the realization of economic development goals. Authoritarian leaders have justified their failure to respect human rights not only as a sacrifice necessary to ensure the successful development of their economic growth strategy, but also as essential for the maintenance of "law and order."

Basing itself on an understanding of Asian perspectives on human rights and on human rights practices characteristic of modem Korean history, this study concludes that if the economic growth of a country does not facilitate the realization of human rights after the country reaches a certain level of economic development, then various restrictions on human rights cannot be justified in the name of economic growth, and that human rights, a critical factor of desirable democracy, carmot be pushed aside until economic development is consolidated. In the same context, a country's economic policies should promote the rule of law and not the political interests of abusive governments.

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