Abstract
Since the occurrence of the financial crisis in 1997 and the emergence of the Kim Dae-jung Government, civic groups started to show conspicuous increase in their activities. This research shows that there is, however, still an imbalance between state and the society in Korea since 1998. What matters the most is that the relationship between the government and nongovernmental organizations is not a horizontal and equal one. Although this relationship is framed as a very independent and objective one, it is consists of a twofold structure in which the nongovernmental organizations are seized under the government influence in return for the supports from the government including financial subsidies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Non-profit civic organizations (NPOs) are civil society organizations that serve public interests by producing or providing quasi-public goods such as education, medical treatment, culture and social services for development and welfare for society. This research uses the term NPO to refer to non-profit foundations that do not seek profit in legal terms (educational foundations, social welfare foundations, and scholarship foundations, etc.) as well as civil society organizations.
- 2.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Security has disclosed the data since 2008, so the previous data from 2000 were collected by using the data from the parliamentary inspections. In the case of 2006 and 2007 under the Roh Moo-hyun Government, data on the number of programs and the total amount of funds were included, but the data on each subcategory could not be acquired and thus were excluded. Still, it would be fair to say that there will not be much difficulty in identifying the overall outline of the research and government dispositions.
- 3.
Collaborative-vendor, which is in contrast with collaborative-partner, means a ‘relationship in which the NPOs fail to have discretionary power or negotiating power and end up as agents of the government which carry out government programs with government resources. Whether the relationship is collaborative-vendor or collaborative-partner relationship depends on the level of discretionary and negotiating power that the NPO with government fund can exercise’ (Lee 1998: 46–47; Girdon et al. 1992).
- 4.
Because there are differences in program categories according to various governments and periods, this research reorganized program categories with the same characteristics into a single category to identify the changes that took place. The 10 reorganized categories are as follows: (1) Social integration, (2) Expansion of citizen participation, (3) Cultural civil rights movement, (4) Volunteer work, (5) Growth of human rights/interests, (6) Establishing social transparency, (7) Resource saving/environmental preservation, (8) Safety supervision/disaster relief, (9) Assisting North Korean citizens/overseas Koreans, (10) International exchanges.
- 5.
Although a direct comparison could not be drawn, this shows stark contrast with non-profit social service organizations in the United States, which earned 47.0–57.11% of their budgets through self-sustained activities such as program costs and fees while receiving less than 10% of their budgets from government funding (Rho 2001).
- 6.
The special act for the three organizations means legislation related to the National Council of the Saemaul Movement, The Association for the Society for a Better Tomorrow and Korea Freedom Federation.
References
Evans P (1997) The eclipse of the state? Reflections on stateness in an era of globalization. World Polit 50(1):62–87
Ferris JM, Graddy E (1989) Fading distinctions among the nonprofit, government and for-profit sectors. In: Hodgkinson VA, Lyman RW (eds) The future of the non-profit sector. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco
Fukuyama F (1992) The end of history and the last man. Penguin, London
Girdon B, Kramer R, Salamon L (eds) (1992) Government and the third sector: emerging relationships in welfare states. Jossey-Bass Publisher, San Francisco
Hall S, Gieben B (eds) (1992) Formations of Modernity. Polity, Cambridge
Hayek FA (1976) The road to serfdom. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London
Held D (1987) Models of democracy. Polity, Cambridge
Institute of East and West Studies, Hankook Research (2000) Research report on the current situation of Korean private organizations (in Korean)
Joo SS (2001) Argument about civil society and NGO: main idea, model and theory. Hanyang University Press, Seoul (in Korean)
Jwa S (2011) Changes in non-profit non-governmental organizations support project during the Lee Myung-bak government. Citizen and World 19:223–236 (in Korean)
Kim I (1997) Nonprofit sector and NGOs: definition, classification and research methods. J East and West Stud 9(2):5–35 (in Korean)
Kim I (2000a) From cleavages to accommodation: the political economy of consociational democracy and neo-corporatism in the Netherlands and Austria. Korean J Int Stud 40(4):225–250 (in Korean)
Kim J (2000b) The growth of the non-government sector in Korea and its relations with the state. Paper presented in Northeast Asian Civil Society: current status and challenging roles of NGOs in Korea, Japan and China (2000, November 11), Seoul
Kim D, Kim K (1999) Reform theory of chaebol in Korea. Na-nam Press, Paju (in Korean)
Lee Y (1997) The state, society and big business in south Korea. Routledge, London
Lee H (1998) History and structural characteristics of NGO. J East and West Stud 10(2):42–75 (in Korean)
Lee Y (2000) The Kim Dae-jung governments economic reform and limitations in the rise of the Neo-Liberal state. In: Wilkinson R, Maltby J, Lee J (eds) Responses to change: some key issues for the future of Korea. University of Sheffield, Sheffield
Lee Y (2013) Unequal development and democracy. Pakyoung Press, Seoul (in Korean)
Lew S, Wang HS (2006) PSPD report. The Center for Free Enterprise (in Korean)
Lim Y (2004) Study on political participation of the labor union in Korea: focusing on ‘participatory’ government. Master’s thesis, Yonsei University, Seoul (in Korean)
Lipsky M, Smith SR (1989) Non-profit organizations, government and the welfare state. Polit Sci Q 104(4):625–648
Pateman C (1970) Participation and democratic theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Putnam DR (1993) Making democracy work: civic traditions in modern Italy. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Rho YH (2001) Changes in revenue resources of nonprofit social service organizations. Korean Association of Nonprofit Organization Research, 2001 Autumn Conference Published Thesis (November 23) (in Korean)
Salamon L, Anheir H (1998) Social origins of civil society: explaining the nonprofit sector cross nationally. Int J Voluntary Nonprofit Organ 9(3):213–248
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lee, Y., Sung, C.H. (2017). The State-Civil Society Relationship in Korea. In: Choi, J., Kwon, Hj., Koo, M. (eds) The Korean Government and Public Policies in a Development Nexus. The Political Economy of the Asia Pacific. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52473-3_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52473-3_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52472-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52473-3
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)