The Failure of Socialism in South Korea:1945-2007

My thesis examines the relationship between structure and agency in terms of examining the reasons for the lack of success of socialism in South Korea. It scrutinises the traditional assessment of socialism in Korea and states how the traditional explanations for the failure of socialism in Korea place undue emphasis on structural factors.

A comprehensive framework of the evolution of socialism in Korea must integrate structural and agent variables and illustrate the process of development as an outcome of their interaction. Repression affected the way socialism was conceived, therefore, it didn’t develop around issues of class compromise because the ruling class was so repressive. Harsh repression resulted in a climate that was difficult for the development of moderate socialism; thus, socialism failed in Korea. It is true that a moderate (and pragmatic) socialism based on evolutionary socialist strategy was a main apparatus of the successful socialist parties in the main and the periphery in the post-war era. Some of the traditional explanations for the failure of socialism (under the authoritarian regimes) over emphasise the affect of repression and lack a clear perspective on the deficiencies of the socialists’ revolutionary strategies. Considering the context in which socialism developed in the post-democratic period, there was a failure to develop beyond revolutionary socialism and build a more pragmatic social democracy that could build a broader alliance within Korean society.