The Oxford Handbook of South Korean

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 T h e Ox f o r d H a n d b o o k o f

S OU T H KOR E A N
P OL I T IC S
The Oxford Handbook of

SOUTH KOREAN
POLITICS
Edited by
JEONGHUN HAN,
RAMON PACHECO PARDO,
and
YOUNGHO CHO
 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
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 Table of Contents

List of Contributors  ix

PA RT 1 I N T ROD U C T ION
1. Introduction: South Korean Politics after Transitions  3
JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho
2. The History of Korea, 1905–​1945  17
Hyung-​Gu Lynn
3. The History of South Korea, 1945–​1987  34
Tae Gyun Park

PA RT 2 C OR E C ON C E P T S
4. Presidentialism with Parliamentary Characteristics  49
JeongHun Han
5. Regionalism  68
Kwang-​Il Yoon
6. Conservative Democratisation  87
WooJin Kang
7. The Developmental State  104
Meredith Woo
8. Chaebol  120
Sang-​young Rhyu
9. Nationalism  136
Jungmin Seo
vi   Table of Contents

PA RT 3 P OL I T IC A L I N S T I T U T ION S
10. Constitutional Politics  153
Won-​Taek Kang
11. Legislative Politics  167
Byoung Kwon Sohn
12. Executive Politics  183
Jongkon Lee
13. Judicial Politics  198
Dongwook Cha

PA RT 4 PA RT I E S A N D E L E C T ION S
14. Parties and Party Systems  217
Sunghack Lim
15. Minority Representation  233
Kyungmee Park
16. Elections and Electoral Systems  252
Woojin Moon
17. Political Communication  270
Han Soo Lee
18. New Issue Politics  285
Seung-​Jin Jang

PA RT 5 C I V I L S O C I E T Y
19. Social Movements: Developments and Structural Changes after
Democratisation  305
Jin-​Wook Shin
20. Interest Group Politics  326
Yoojin Lim and Yeonho Lee
21. Labour Union Activism  342
Soonmee Kwon
22. Citizens’ Support for Democracy  358
Youngho Cho
 Table of Contents    vii

PA RT 6 C U LT U R E A N D M E DIA

23. Cinema and Television  377

Hyangjin Lee
24. The Internet and Social Media  394
Dal Yong Jin
25. The Press  408
Ki-​Sung Kwak
26. Public Intellectuals  423
Namhee Lee
27. Politics and Popular Music  439
John Lie

PA RT 7 P U B L IC P OL IC Y A N D
P OL IC Y-​M A K I N G
28. Political Control and Bureaucratic Autonomy  455
Huck-​ju Kwon
29. The Development of Welfare Programmes  471
Jooha Lee
30. Decentralisation and Local Government  491
Yooil Bae
31. Corruption  508
Kyoung-​sun Min

PA RT 8 T H E I N T E R NAT IONA L A R E NA
32. Foreign Policy  529
Ramon Pacheco Pardo
33. Security and Defence Policy  546
Sung-​han Kim and Alex Soohoon Lee
34. Foreign Economic Policy  562
Sohyun Zoe Lee
viii   Table of Contents

35. The South Korean Development Model  578

Eun Mee Kim and Nancy Y. Kim
36. Korean Reunification  595
Young-​Kwan Yoon
37. The ROK–US Alliance: Drivers of Resilience  613
Victor D. Cha and Katrin Katz
38. Evolving Relations with China  629
Heung-​Kyu Kim

Index  647
 List of Contributors

Yooil Bae, Assistant Professor, Department of Public Administration, Dong-​A University

Dongwook Cha, Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and
Policy, Dong-​eui University
Victor D. Cha, Vice Dean and D.S. Song-​KF Professor of Government and International
Affairs, School of Foreign Service and Department of Government, Georgetown
University
Youngho Cho, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Sogang University
JeongHun Han, Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Studies and
Chair of the EU Center, Seoul National University
Seung-​Jin Jang, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International
Relations, Kookmin University
Dal Yong Jin, Distinguished SFU Professor, Simon Fraser University
Won-Taek Kang is professor, Department of Political Science and International
Relations, Seoul National University
WooJin Kang, Professor, Department of Political Science and Diplomacy, KyungPook
National University
Katrin Katz, Non-​Resident Senior Fellow, The Korea Society and Adjunct Fellow
(Non-​Resident), Office of the Korea Chair, Center for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS)
Eun Mee Kim, President, Ewha Womans University
Heung-​Kyu Kim, Director, US–​China Policy Institute, Ajou University
Nancy Y. Kim, PhD Candidate and Researcher, Institute for Development and Human
Security, Ewha Womans University
Sung-​han Kim, Professor, College of International Studies, Korea University
Ki-​Sung Kwak, Chair of Department, Department of Korean Studies, University
of Sydney
x   List of Contributors

Huck-​ju Kwon, Professor, Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National

University
Soonmee Kwon, Professor, Korea Employment and Labor Educational Institute
Alex Soohoon Lee, Associate Research Fellow, Korea Institute for Defense Analyses
(KIDA)
Han Soo Lee, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and Diplomacy,
Ajou University
Hyangjin Lee, Professor of Film Studies, Rikkyo University
Jongkon Lee, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International
Relations, Ewha Womans University
Jooha Lee, Professor, Department of Public Administration, Dongguk University
Namhee Lee, Professor of Modern Korean History, Department of Asian Languages
and Cultures and Director, Center for Korean Studies, UCLA
Sohyun Zoe Lee, Lecturer in International Political Economy, School of History,
Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, Queen's University Belfast
Yeonho Lee, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies,
Yonsei University
John Lie, Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
Sunghack Lim, Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Seoul
Yoojin Lim, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Kangwon National
University
Hyung-​Gu Lynn, AECL/​KEPCO Chair in Korean Research, University of British
Columbia and Editor, Pacific Affairs
Kyoung-​sun Min, Assistant Professor, Korean National Police University
Woojin Moon, Professor, Department of Political Science and Diplomacy, Ajou
University
Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Professor of International Relations, King’s College London
and KF–​VUB Korea Chair, Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Kyungmee Park, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science and International
Relations, Jeonbuk National University
Tae Gyun Park, Professor, Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National
University
Sang-​young Rhyu , Professor, Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University
 List of Contributors    xi

Jungmin Seo, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Studies,

Yonsei University
Jin-​Wook Shin, Professor, Department of Sociology, Chung-​Ang University
Byoung Kwon Sohn, Professor, Department of Political Science and International
Relations, Chung-​Ang University
Meredith Woo, President, Sweet Briar College
Kwang-​Il Yoon, Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations,
Sookmyung Women’s University
Young-​Kwan Yoon, Professor Emeritus, College of Social Sciences, Seoul National
University and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Republic of Korea
 Pa rt 1

I N T RODU C T ION
 Chapter 1

Introdu c t i on
South Korean Politics after Transitions

JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo,

and Youngho Cho

1. South Korean Politics: Old and New

South Korea is best known for its economic development, democratic consolida-
tion, proactive civil society, and, more recently, for its emergence as a cultural power-
house. South Korea transitioned from one of the poorest countries in the world in
the 1950s into a developed economy by the 1990s. Its economic development model is
now being exported throughout the developing world. Meanwhile, South Korea went
from dictatorship to democracy in the 1980s, thanks to the re-​establishment of free
and fair elections in 1987. Over three decades later, it is a consolidated democracy with
peaceful transitions of power between parties. In addition, South Korean civil society
has been key in the democratic transition as well as its consolidation. Today, it keeps
leaders accountable, as the 2016–​2017 Candlelight Uprising showed. Furthermore,
South Korean culture has been gaining in popularity across the world. Both its trad-
itional and, especially, contemporary cultural expressions are being consumed well
beyond East Asia.
The starting point of this handbook is that South Korea has experienced various
transitions, including political, democratic, economic, societal, and demographic, and,
thus, its contemporary politics are considerably different from its traditional patterns
through the process of responding to these transitions. During the 1950s and 1960s, the
South Korean state was not functionally differentiated. The country was ruled by per-
sonal dictatorship, its economy was based on subsistence agriculture, and most South
Koreans lived in rural areas and followed Confucian norms and rituals. Accordingly,
4    JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho

few foreign scholars paid attention to this small, recently war-​torn country for which
there was little hope.
In recent decades and moving away from this old image, South Korea has created and
developed specialised state organisations and the country has institutionalised core
elements of liberal democracy such as free elections, multiparty competition, and civil
liberties. Moreover, high-​tech and service companies have been leading its economy,
South Korean cultural industries have been gaining global popularity, and its society
now looks hyper-​modern. Owing to these dramatic transitions, international society
now regards South Korea as a middle power and the country has expanded its interests,
as well as its responsibilities, abroad. Overall, South Korea and its politics are far distant
from the old image and the grand perspectives that tended to underappreciate the com-
plex and diversified nature of South Korean politics.
Traditional understandings of South Korea indeed do not account for this historical
evolution and the complex nature of its politics. Many scholars and political pundits
specialising in South Korea describe its politics through two grand perspectives: dy-
namic and static. On the dynamic side, Gregory Henderson published his seminal book,
Korea: The Politics of the Vortex, in 1968. Henderson characterised South Korean polit-
ical dynamics using a physics analogy: as a strong vortex sweeping all active elements of
society upwards and towards centralised power. Henderson applied the popular thesis of
the politics of mass society by William Kornhauser (1959) to link South Korean politics
to an agrarian and traditional society. In his analysis, the strong unity and homogeneity
of South Korea were the main reasons hindering the formation of strong institutions or
voluntary associations, preventing change, and, therefore, failing to construct a stable
liberal democracy (Henderson 1968: 5).
On the static side, scholars emphasise the cultural legacies of Confucianism. According
to this perspective, the Joseon dynasty adopted Confucianism as the state ideology and it
eventually became embedded into social and private norms and values (Deuchler 1995).
Since then, Confucianism has continued to play an important role in shaping the mod-
ernisation trajectories of South Korea and continues to have an enduring impact on its
politics and democracy (Kim 2014; Shin 2012). While acknowledging that some aspects
of these grand perspectives may still remain relevant, we need to present an updated
understanding of South Korean politics, which, by and large, has been overlooked by
these perspectives.
We aim to shed fresh light on contemporary South Korean politics and put together
this handbook with two underpinning related principles in mind. First, most of the
chapters examine South Korean politics since the 1987 democratic transition. The reason
is that state development, economic growth, and social and demographic changes began
to be reflected in South Korean politics after this transition, which removed the inter-
vention of authoritarian leaders. Second, the authors take a bottom-​up perspective to
advance our understanding about South Korean politics. Relying on Robert Merton’s
(1968) mid-​range theory, the different contributors integrate both theoretical and em-
pirical research about specific aspects of South Korean politics. As South Korea has
experienced various transitions over the past decades, its politics have changed in a
 Introduction   5

multidimensional way. And since holistic and grand approaches are limited in detailing
specific aspects of South Korean politics, we have divided the handbook into six
sections: core concepts, institutions, civil society, culture and media, public policy, and
foreign policy.
What changes have been taking place in South Korea’s core political elements such
as the developmental state, nationalism, presidentialism, and regionalism? How
have democratic institutions, such as elections, the party system, and the judicial
body, processed citizens’ interest and values and transformed them into government
policies and laws? Has the civil society of South Korea, including interest groups and
labour unions, grown in size and attained democratic civility? What are the main
characteristics of South Korean culture as it has modernised and globalised? What
impacts and implications have decentralisation, new public management (NPM), and
growing welfare programmes had on the politics and society of South Korea? And
what is the current state of South Korean foreign policy towards North Korea and the
superpowers surrounding the Korean Peninsula?
This handbook answers these and related questions by providing state-​of-​the-​art
analyses of all significant aspects of South Korean politics. The authors in this hand-
book share a desire to explain South Korean politics using both theoretical and em-
pirical approaches and to provide a general account of the main characteristics
observed in specific domains of its politics after transition. Through this project, the
contributors hope that an international audience will gain new knowledge about
South Korean politics either in their own right or in comparison to the experience of
other countries.

2. Modern History and Core Concepts

Our handbook focuses on the contemporary politics of South Korea after the 1987
democratic transition. However, contemporary politics reflect social, economic, and
political changes that the country experienced during the twentieth century. After the
Joseon dynasty failed to reform and survive, the modernisation process of the Korean
Peninsula was postponed until it gathered new strength following its liberation from
Japanese colonialism and later occupation by the United States and the Soviet Union in
1945. With modernisation in the first half of the twentieth century proving impossible,
domestic efforts to develop a liberal democracy, an industrial economy, and a modern
society took place during its second half, framed by South Korea’s alliance with the
United States.
Because these two periods in modern Korean history are crucial to understanding
contemporary South Korea, we include two chapters that take stock of what we would
lose should we jump straight into present South Korean politics. Hyung-​Gu Lynn
(Chapter 2) examines major transformations in the period from 1905 to the 1940s such
as the emergence of Korean nationalism, the polarisation of left and right independence
6    JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho

groups, and incipient economic development under the period of Japanese occupation.
While acknowledging the dominant scholarly narrative about the interplay between
Japanese colonial oppression and the Korean struggle against it to achieve national in-
dependence, Lynn shows that these transformations are less self-​evident than those
described in school textbooks. Tae Gyun Park’s (Chapter 3), meanwhile, focuses on the
history of South Korean politics from 1948 to 1987. Throughout this period, South Korea
underwent several political changes in terms of regime type and president. For the most
part, however, South Korea spent these years under de facto or de jure authoritarian
rule. Thus, there were decades-​long tensions between authoritarianism and progressive
forces demanding democratisation. Ultimately, the experience of South Korea during
these decades and the political tensions affecting the country helped to shape South
Korea’s democratisation and democratic years post 1987.
After these two chapters on the modern political history of South Korea, we provide
core concepts whose understanding is the basic foundation to delve into various aspects
of South Korean politics. JeongHun Han (Chapter 4) posits that South Korea has been
commonly known as a presidential system. However, he also points out that its perform-
ance is often questionable from the perspective of the normal dynamics of a presidential
system. This is due to the existence and effectiveness of institutions observed in parlia-
mentary systems. In particular, the institutional characteristics of institutions abnormal
to presidential systems—​thus providing stronger power to the executive—​may help us
to understand why the power of South Korean presidents is not controlled or checked by
other governing institutions, including the National Assembly or the courts, but is often
controlled by civil society movements.
Regionalism, covered in Chapter 5, is one of South Korea’s most distinct sociological
characteristics. Its importance is reinforced because of its influence on South Korean
politics. Defining it as a voting behaviour tendency based on voters’ birth places,
Kwang-​Il Yoon (Chapter 5) contends that regionalism emerged due to processes of un-
even industrialisation and state repression between regions. As the leading politicians—​
the ‘three Kims’—​conducted campaign strategies to mobilise voters according to their
birth places, incentives for voters to find alternative channels of representation were
weakened. Even though its influence has declined, Yoon posits that regionalism is the
only clear political cleavage in South Korea.
Conservative democratisation is a concept separating South Korean democratisa-
tion from some other countries. According to WooJin Kang (Chapter 6), South Korean
democratisation was the result of a political pact established through a bargaining pro-
cess between old political elites that remained in power. Instead of reshuffling the entire
system, the democratisation process to a large extent preserved the power of the polit-
ical elites of the old authoritarian regime. This clashes with the role and beliefs of new
democratic elites that have emerged post democratisation and which sometimes seek
to transform the regime itself. Similarly, the continuation of the policymaking patterns
of the developmental state is also present in contemporary South Korea. Meredith
Woo (Chapter 7), meanwhile, shows that the country was part of a group of East Asian
peers including Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan in which governmental,
 Introduction   7

bureaucratic, and economic elites worked together to promote economic development.

With the advent of democracy and the graduation of South Korea into a developed
economy, these links have frayed but have not completely dissipated. Indeed, a devel-
opmental mindset characterised by state–​private sector cooperation and long-​term
thinking continues to inform policymaking in South Korea. Sang-​young Rhyu (Chapter
8) examines the chaebol using one of the three metaphors in the political economy of
South Korea: angels, demons, and necessary evils. According to Rhyu, chaebol are active
players in the South Korean developmental state, helping to make South Korea one of
the major industrial powers. Nonetheless, the long-​standing collaboration between
chaebol and political elites also deteriorates the development of social organisations.
Political competition has failed to escape from the pattern of conflicts between elite
coalitions and the mass public. Therefore, the developmental state and the chaebol face
the prospect of having to go their own ways.
Finally, this section discusses how South Korean culture’s strong unity based on na-
tionalism has evolved. Modern nationalism originated from the anti-​Japanese inde-
pendence movement, yet Jungmin Seo (Chapter 9) points out that political leaders
have utilised and altered its forms and contents since 1948. Taking the constructivist
approach to nationalism and using Benedict Anderson’s definition of a nation as an
‘imagined community’ (1991), Seo contends that South Korean nationalism has evolved
throughout major political events such as the Korean War, authoritarian state-​building,
democratisation, and recent globalisation. Seo concludes that nationalism conditions
how politicians and ordinary citizens deal with domestic and foreign issues.
Seen from the perspective of these core concepts characterising contemporary South
Korean politics, the profound changes occurring since the 1987 democratisation pro-
cess might have had mixed effects on the emergence of new dynamics in South Korean
politics. On the one hand, political and social divisions have changed as the interests
between governing institutions as well as regions and other social sectors have become
more heterogeneous. On the other hand, such divisions may not have found channels
for their representation. The legacies of the previous authoritarian regime were not
completely eliminated, suggesting that political dynamics are still dominated by the
same centres of power. Nevertheless, recent changes seem to have weakened the nega-
tive influences of authoritarian legacies. The remaining sections of the handbook illus-
trate in more detail the changes taking place in South Korea.

3. Political Process

Sections 2 and 3 in this handbook examine various aspects of the political process to
link peoples’ preferences and public policy. During the democratic movements of the
1980s, the political interests of the whole of South Korean society were concentrated
in making the authoritarian leaders step down from the centre of power. This would
open the door to choosing new leaders in a democratic way. This homogeneous
8    JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho

orientation to political and societal reform is now no longer valid. More than thirty
years after democratisation, the political interests of the South Korean people have
become diversified, leading to the emergence of a complex web of groups of people
divided by different preferences on various social issues. The extent to which contem-
porary South Korea’s political process succeeds in responding to this change is the
main concern of these two sections.
Section 2, in this regard, explores the political accommodation of the current South
Korean Constitution and identifies key defining characteristics of performance among
three main constitutional institutions, namely the National Assembly, the executive,
and the judiciary. In Chapter 10, Won-​Taek Kang argues that the current South Korean
Constitution shows clear limitations by producing ‘imperial’ presidents as well as failing
to represent the diversity of the contemporary South Korean society. He explains that
the focus of the 1988 Constitution lay in re-​establishing a fair, free, and direct presiden-
tial election system. Consequently, by following the 1962 version of the Constitution, the
1988 version left other issues untouched including human rights, economic liberalism,
and institutional consistency. Based on this understanding, he claims that the current
Constitution is inadequate to reflect the diversity of contemporary South Korean
society.
Under the Constitution, the relationship between governing institutions has some-
times failed to produce the expected checks and balances in a presidential system.
Byoung Kwon Sohn (Chapter 11) argues that the role of the National Assembly is still
fairly limited, preventing the development of the so-​called inter-​party consultative
system. Instead, the dominant role of the president and the executive branch in the le-
gislative process often results in the atrophy of standing committees and quick, major-
itarian decisions without proper deliberation. In contrast, Jongkon Lee (Chapter 12)
finds that the strong bureaucratic power tradition has been weakened as the ability of the
National Assembly to keep the executive in check has been strengthened. The slightly
different evaluation on the relationship between the National Assembly and the execu-
tive in these two chapters may lead us to reach the understanding that South Korean
society is still waiting for the development of an adequate representative role for the
National Assembly, independent of the seemingly weakened power of legislative initia-
tive for the executive. As for the judiciary, Dongwook Cha (Chapter 13) points out how
recent relations between the executive and the National Assembly have been mediated
by the Constitutional Court. South Korean society did not pay much attention to the
role of this court in the early stages of democratisation. But, as the era of dominance
by the president and the government has passed, the Constitutional Court is now fa-
cing unprecedented political and social pressures to resolve the conflicts between highly
polarised political forces.
Section 3 examines the process of political representation and its substantial
outcomes in South Korea. Sunghack Lim (Chapter 14) confirms the stable inter-​party
competition over the years leading to democratic consolidation in South Korea. While
blaming regional factionalism, personality-​based party organisation and organisa-
tional instability for the weak party system institutionalisation of South Korea, his
 Introduction   9

evaluation of South Korean parties is overall fairly positive. Lim characterises them
as a fairly successful actors for democratic governance. Indeed, South Korean parties
have frequently changed their labels and organisational structures. But if we make use
of a one-​dimensional ideological spectrum, the main liberal and conservative parties
have remained as representatives of voters in their respective ideological positions.
Nevertheless, ideological representation by each party does not imply a substantively
successful representation. Kyungmee Park (Chapter 15) covers, in this regard, the level
of political representation for different groups of people. In particular, she argues that
women’s representation in South Korean society is still lower than the standard for
other developed countries. Park also explains that representation for migrants, as well
as the younger generation, still remains at a symbolic level. Thus, the stable existence
of two main parties on each side of the ideological spectrum does not guarantee the
avoidance of marginalisation of some social issues in South Korean society. Woojin
Moon (Chapter 16), focusing on electoral competitions in South Korea, highlights how
voters’ issue preferences can be weakly represented. He argues that the current mixed-​
member majoritarian electoral system in South Korea produces a weak proportionality
between the vote and seat shares of political parties. In addition, the South–​North con-
frontation tends to distort the programmatic mobilisation strategies of political parties
in South Korea. Because of these characteristics, he argues that candidates’ campaigning
strategies are more likely to concentrate on mobilising personal votes form their re-
gional base.
Meanwhile, Han Soo Lee (Chapter 17) discusses the potential development of
different types of campaign strategies. He argues that the recent advancement of on-
line communication technologies is associated with significant changes in the cam-
paign strategies of political parties in South Korea. Even though Lee cautions against
concluding that there is a direct correlation between the use of new media and offline
political participation, he analyses the possibility that online communication tools
will play a significant role in the process of representing the diversity of South Korean
society. While Lee shows the effect of communication technology developments,
Seung-​Jin Jang (Chapter 18) leads us to pay attention to the effect of diverse issues in
the process of representation. He finds that issues such as gender and immigration
have only recently begun to become politically significant and attract public attention.
Likewise, only in recent years have welfare and redistribution become a prominent
area of party competition. As he shows, there are emerging political coalitions among
South Korean voters focusing on those issues. Thus, he expects that political competi-
tion in South Korea will be affected by the diversification in the type of issues receiving
attention.
Overall, all authors studying the representation process in South Korean politics seem
to agree that the country’s society no longer has a homogenous purpose as observed in
the early period of democratisation. In response to heterogenous preferences, the devel-
opment of political dynamics different from the early democratising period is required.
And indeed, some of them are already taking hold in contemporary South Korean pol-
itics and society.
10    JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho

4. Civil Society, Culture, and Media

Sections 4 and 5 examine various aspects of South Korea’s civil society, culture, and
media as they relate to the country’s politics. Section 4 focuses on the interplay between
civil society and politics. Even though Henderson (1968) attributed the unstable pol-
itics of South Korea to a lack of intermediary civic organisations, the authors in this
section show that economic development and democratisation have led to the tremen-
dous growth of civil society. The authors concur that South Korean civil society initially
grew out of the democratic movement against the authoritarian state before the 1987
transition. But they also show that the democratic consolidation of the 1990s dramatic-
ally facilitated its expansion and activism compared to the pre-​democratic era. The two
main reasons are that socio-​economic modernisation equipped South Korean citizens
with resources and opportunities to form civic organisations and interest groups, while
political democratisation removed barriers to citizens’ associationism and activism in
the political process.
The authors highlight that the unity of the democratic movement during the 1980s
did not hold and gave a way to diversity and differentiation within civil society. In this
context, economic interest groups, labour unions, civic reform organisations, and
even new issue groups focusing on issues such as gender or minorities have formed
and engaged in politics since the 1990s. In Chapter 19, Jin-​Wook Shin demonstrates
that civic associations and activism have blossomed not only due to the democratisa-
tion movement but also because of their own success. Along with the growth of civil
society and activism, three notable changes have been observed in the macrostructure
of South Korean social movement: the differentiation of social movements across inde-
pendent issue areas, the decentralisation of communication and mobilisation structures
as well as the ecosystem of social movements, and the ideological division of civil so-
ciety intensifying competition between groups pursuing conflicting values and reform
agendas. Moreover, citizens actively participate in non-​profit organisations and politics
in comparison with other democratic countries, which confirms that South Korean civil
society is vibrant at both the individual and societal levels.
Along the same lines, Yoojin Lim and Yeonho Lee explain in Chapter 20 that the
growth of interest groups is evident in four areas: labour unions, economic organisations,
professional associations, and public interest groups. If these interest groups were
controlled by government during the authoritarian past, they have departed from state
influence and demanded their sectoral interests. And if interest groups showed the
features of competitive pluralism before the 2010s, they have then headed towards a
conflictual pluralism in which they directly clash, and representative organisations such
as political parties remain weak.
Soonmee Kwon (Chapter 21) details the internal characteristics of South Korean la-
bour unionism. Growing out of the Great Workers’ Struggle of 1987, labour unions in
South Korea have faced a dilemma: they have been under pressure from globalisation
 Introduction   11

and market-​friendly politics, while maintaining militant activism without official

channels to communicate with political parties. Indeed, labour unions are internally
divided at the ideological level and have failed to shift from enterprise unionism to in-
dustrial unionism. They have also failed to establish a working class differentiated from
the classes represented by the liberal and conservative parties. Accordingly, the recent
dualisation of the labour market has intensified the political marginalisation of labour
unions, making militant unionism, including ‘sky protests’, an attractive strategy among
union leaders.
Youngho Cho (Chapter 22) examines recent trends and the state of civic culture in
South Korea, since the health of a democracy depends on what people think about it.
Since the 1990s, public support for democracy has steadily eroded and openness to
strongmen and military rule has increased in South Korea. It is notable that this down-
ward trend continued even after the 2016–​2017 Candlelight Uprising. The sluggish de-
velopment of representative institutions has contributed to the steady decline in public
support for democracy, causing worrisome signals for the future of South Korean
democracy.
The authors in this section identify three general features of South Korean civil so-
ciety. First of all, large-​scale mass protests have continued as evidenced in the 2016–​
2017 Candlelight Uprising. Second, political polarisation within civil society has
been intensifying in that labour organisations have maintained militaristic activism
and various interest groups conflict outside of formal politics. Finally, representative
institutions have been limited in terms of incorporating and integrating differentiated
interests of civil society.
Section 5 examines the links between South Korea’s culture and media and the
country’s politics, focusing on how traditional and new communication spaces and
tools shape socio-​political and politico-​economic dynamics. The contributors to this
section show that media indeed influences politics. But as media consumption patterns
have changed, online media has become more central to politics compared to other
types that played a bigger rule during the authoritarian era. Also, politicisation can affect
media narratives as well. Thus, media sometimes plays the role of political actor rather
than being a medium for objective information to allow informed citizens to form their
own views. In any case, and broadly speaking, media and cultural expressions have also
served their purpose of allowing for debate among different views.
In Chapter 23, Hyangjin Lee explains the role that cinema and television have played in
critiquing South Korean politics, therefore shaping the views of voters and public opinion
at large. In particular, cinema and television have been critical of government interven-
tionism, a remnant of the authoritarian years. In the case of cinema, in addition, its popu-
larity continues to make it an influential medium. As for television, its apt use of online
communication has preserved its enduring relevance. Likewise, Dal Yong Jin explains
in Chapter 24, that the internet and social media have shaped voting behaviour and,
more broadly, the political conversation since the early 2000s. They have democratised
this conversation by influencing political messaging and giving voice to new groups
which found it difficult to be represented in traditional media. At the same time, the
12    JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho

dominance of a small number of internet portals and messaging apps give them a gate-
keeper function in that they determine which ideas circulate.
In contrast, the role of the press in shaping public discourse has weakened as Ki-​
Sung Kwak suggests in Chapter 25. The main reason is its partisanship and identifica-
tion with either conservative or liberal ideas, which has sowed divisions in South Korea
and means that those with a particular ideology will only read the press that conforms
to their views. In the case of the press, Kwak explains how the legacy of decades of au-
thoritarianism still affects political reporting and the relationship between the press and
political parties. But as Namhee Lee (Chapter 26) explains, the situation is different for
public intellectuals that used to rely on the press to influence the circulation of political
ideas. Their role has not been diminished but rather transformed. Making use of new
means of communication, public intellectuals continue to shape and participate—​if not
necessarily to lead—​public debate. Furthermore, both socially conscious celebrities and
experts in a particular field have emerged as new public intellectuals since the 2000s.
Meanwhile, popular music plays a different role in politics. As John Lie (Chapter 27)
shows, popular music was more political during the years of authoritarianism when it
channelled the thirst for democracy. Since democratisation, however, it has become
a paradigm of South Korean political economy and globalisation rather than a driver
of domestic political conversation. Therefore, the political role of popular music has
changed. Today, popular music in general and K-​pop in particular supports the political
goal of economic growth and globalisation that is central to the contemporary South
Korean state.
Culture and media have a big impact on the politics of post-​democratisation South
Korea. They shape the political agenda, represent different points of view, and provide a
communication channel for political parties, civil society, and other groups. Some cul-
ture and media organisations have become stronger as the years have gone by, while
others have become weaker. But all of them play an important role, as is the case in com-
parable democracies across Asia and elsewhere.

5. Public Policy and the

International Arena

Sections 6 and 7 examine the politics of South Korea’s public policy and international
relations. Section 6 shows how bureaucratic government and public policy have changed
in the post-​developmental and democratic era. Before the 1987 transition, South Korea
could be best described as an authoritarian developmental state with centralised gov-
ernment and minimal welfare programmes. When Park Chung-​hee launched the devel-
opmental state including specific government structures in the 1960s, North Korea was
more advanced and belligerent than South Korea (Greitens 2016). Thus, Park sought to
avoid a reunification-​first policy and direct conflict with North Korea, focusing instead
 Introduction   13

on boosting security and the developmental state via economic growth. The ultimate
purpose was regime survival as well as winning the ‘competition’ against North Korea.
This approach provided the necessary impetus for the development of both the state and
the economy. The South Korean government was optimised for economic development
and security. However, this developmental model became unsustainable and has had to
change to respond to new demands emerging from the 1990s.
In Chapter 28, Huck-​ju Kwon evaluates the democratic accountability of the South
Korean government. Kwon argues that the political control of elected leaders from the
national to the local levels has increased, politicising and overwhelming bureaucratic
autonomy. Following democratisation, South Korean presidents have undertaken
reforms to dismantle the policy regime of the developmental state and to reduce the
number of initiatives coming out of the bureaucracy, eventually making performance
management less autonomous and effective than before. Government reforms in South
Korea need to create a balanced and accountable relationship between elected leaders
and professional bureaucrats.
Jooha Lee (Chapter 29) identifies the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis as the critical juncture
when South Korea departed from the legacy of developmental welfarism characterised by
low government spending and strong emphasis on human capital investment. While the
current welfarism of South Korea has become more inclusive by increasing its spending
and focusing on vulnerable groups compared to the previous developmental welfarism,
its social investment strategies still mix both protective and productive purposes. It is
apparent that the dualisation between regular and non-​regular work and addressing the
aftermath of COVID-​19 are two urgent tasks for South Korean welfarism.
When analysing the decentralisation of South Korea’s central government, Yooil
Bae (Chapter 30) shows that institutional decentralisation has been enormous.
However, the weak administrative and fiscal capabilities of local governments have
led to frequent confrontation with the central government and a growing gap among
them. Furthermore, dependency on fiscal transfers from the central government and
shrinking local populations are expected to increase the burden of local governments
and widen regional economic disparities, which may pose a threat to local as well as na-
tional democracy.
Meanwhile, Kyoung-​sun Min (Chapter 31) divides corruption into two types: petty
and grand. Min demonstrates that the democratisation and economic development
of South Korea have dramatically reduced the petty corruption experienced by or-
dinary citizens and lower-​class officials, but more efforts are needed to control grand
corruption, especially linked to presidents. While democratisation and the use of
internet technology explains a low level of petty corruption, the legacies of crony capit-
alism and prosecution power explain the persistence of grand corruption.
Overall, the old centralised, developmental, and authoritarian government of South
Korea has been adapting to the pressures of democratisation, globalisation, decentral-
isation, and need for social protection. Recent governmental and political efforts have
focused on institutional domains, but they are yet to create a balanced and reciprocal
relationship between elected politicians and professional bureaucrats.
14    JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho

Section 7 examines South Korea’s foreign and defence policy since the transition to
democracy. South Korea has become more ambitious, dynamic, and self-​confident. It
has emerged as a middle power, one whose history of democratic and economic de-
velopment plus military upgrading has equipped it with a strong political narrative to
underpin its foreign policy. But even though politics may not have a huge impact on
the ultimate goals that South Korean policymakers would like to achieve (e.g. reunifica-
tion with North Korea, a strong alliance with the United States, or promoting economic
growth), liberals and conservatives do not always agree on the instruments to achieve
them. Thus, domestic politics influence foreign policy insofar as changes in government
can lead to the prioritisation of some specific tools of foreign policymaking over others.
In Chapter 32, Ramon Pacheco Pardo shows that foreign policy has remained rela-
tively stable in terms of structures, goals, and available tools in spite of the level of political
polarisation in South Korea. To a large extent, this reflects that South Korea is a middle
power, which has both advantages and constraints. One of the key advantages is that
South Korean politicians and policymakers agree on the range of issues that their country
should be focusing on, thus providing continuity. When analysing South Korea’s security
and defence policy, Sung-​han Kim and Alex Soohoon Lee (Chapter 33) find that South
Korea faces two key security dilemmas that underscore this stability in terms of structures
and goals: the North Korean nuclear threat and US–​China strategic competition. These
dilemmas are decades old, which underscores the extent to which South Korean foreign
policy is determined by developments outside its control. However, Kim and Lee caution,
competing beliefs mean that South Korean policy choices have fluctuated between liberal
and conservative administrations. This is the result of each camp having different beliefs
about the best ways to promote South Korean national interests.
With regards to the economic dimension of foreign policy, Sohyun Zoe Lee explains
in Chapter 34 that the overarching goal of promoting growth through foreign economic
policy remains unchanged. This has been a cornerstone of South Korean foreign eco-
nomic policy dating back decades, given the extent to which the country has benefited
from global trade openness. But governments differ in terms of how to achieve this
goal. And they also have different ideas about the role of the chaebol and other civil
society groups in economic policymaking. If there is one area in which liberals and
conservatives agree when it comes to foreign policy, it is in positing South Korea as a
development model and an aid donor. Eun Mee Kim and Nancy Y. Kim (Chapter 35) ex-
plain that this is a cornerstone of South Korean foreign policy, given the extent to which
South Korea benefited from external support when it was a developing country. And
they argue that South Korea’s success story ultimately is the result of policy flexibility, a
lesson that the country is trying to export.
When it comes to South Korean relations with third countries, three stand out: North
Korea, the United States, and China. In Chapter 36, Young-​kwan Yoon finds that
South Korea’s policy towards North Korea has also been in flux because liberals and
conservatives identify differently vis-​à-​vis Korea’s other half. The ultimate goal of reuni-
fication remains unchanged, regardless of South Korean domestic politics, and has been
a staple of the country’s foreign policy since its foundation. But the means to achieve this
 Introduction   15

goal do not. This is the result of opposing views about North Korea’s nuclear programme
and the regime’s stability. Similarly, Victor Cha and Katrin Katz (Chapter 37) show that
South Korea’s liberals and conservatives agree on the need for a strong alliance with the
United States. This has been a staple of South Korean foreign policy since the Korean
War. However, liberals and conservatives differ in terms of how much autonomy South
Korea should exercise within the alliance. In general, liberals believe that autonomy
should take precedence over the alliance. For conservatives, in contrast, the alliance
is an enabler of South Korean autonomy. In Chapter 38, Heung-​kyu Kim assesses the
relationship between South Korea and China. The two countries only normalised dip-
lomatic relations in 1992, but, of course, Sino-​Korean historical relations date back
centuries. Kim explains that this proximity means that the gravitational pull of China
inevitably affects South Korean foreign policy, particularly in an area marked by stra-
tegic competition between South Korea’s neighbour and its ally, the United States. In this
context, South Korea has had to learn to carefully navigate relations between the two
powers to avoid being affected by their bilateral competition.
All told, the politics of South Korea in relation to its presence in the international
arena have evolved substantially since the country’s democratisation. As South Korea
has become more developed and democratic, debates about how to pursue the country’s
core foreign policy interests have grown. The goals may not change much regardless of
who is in power, but the means to achieve them are affected by domestic politics.

6. South Korea’s Democracy

By critically evaluating the contemporary politics of South Korea in their areas of

expertise, most of the contributors to this handbook point out that South Korean politics
have been moving in the direction of introducing the principle of checks and balances
over the South Korean presidential system. Different groups, including political parties
and civil society, have developed diverse channels to make their voices heard. Strong
state-​led developmentalism has been replaced by a thriving market-​driven economy
with heterogenous demands. Instances and practices of international cooperation and
mutual learning have eroded the unity of political elites, now divided into competing
groups with different reference points behind their policy orientations.
Accordingly, both the vortex-​like instability of Henderson (1968) and the static cul-
ture of Confucianism have limits in explaining the contemporary dynamic of South
Korean politics. This is the case because South Korea has experienced social, economic,
and demographic transitions over the past half-​century and its democratic politics has
accompanied—​as well as enabled—​those changes. The dynamics of contemporary
South Korean politics have often followed from developments on civil society. The
number of interest groups has expanded as a result of economic development, on the
one hand, and the interplay between representative politics and a modernised society
on the other.
16    JeongHun Han, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, and Youngho Cho

In the literature analysing political development and democracy, there are two
contrasting views. According to the modernisation paradigm of Seymour Lipset
(1959), a stable democracy emerges as a consequence of socio-​economic modernisa-
tion. Socio-​economic modernisation empowers the middle class, breeds civil society
with interest groups and civil organisations, and supports the accumulation of cultural
capital supportive of democratic legitimacy. On the other hand, Huntington (1968)
posited that socio-​economic modernisation does not necessarily lead to democracy but
tends to cause political instability because of the changes it brings. The reason behind
Huntington’s claim is that the speed of socio-​economic modernisation is normally faster
than that of political development, and therefore (political) democracy is not likely to
attain institutional stability in changing societies. Despite the academic debate between
these two views, both approaches agree that South Korea is as an exemplary case of a
country which has successfully achieved socio-​economic modernisation and political
democracy following a sequential path (Fukuyama 2014).
Taking mid-​range perspectives rather than grand theories, this edited volume aims to
provide an in-​depth and accurate evaluation of South Korean contemporary politics as
well as the evolution of its democracy as a system and as a practice. The volume explains
and discusses their strengths and weaknesses, the areas in which there has been more
change since the 1980s and the areas in which shifts have proceeded more slowly, and
the reasons why South Korean politics and democracy have evolved in a particular way.
It is our hope that readers of this volume gain a deeper understanding of how South
Korea got to the point it is at today, appreciate the country’s remarkable evolution from
the late 1980s onwards, and come up with their own analysis to debate the ways in which
South Korean democracy might evolve in the future.

Bibliography
Anderson, B. (1991), Imagined Communities (New York: Verso).
Deuchler, M. (1995), The Confucian Transformation of Korea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press).
Fukuyama, F. (2014), Political Order and Political Decay (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux).
Greitens, S. (2016), Dictators and Their Secret Police (New York: Cambridge University Press).
Henderson, G. (1968), Korea: The Politics of the Vortex (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press).
Huntington, S. P. (1968), Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press).
Kim, S. (2014), Confucian Democracy in East Asia (New York: Cambridge University Press).
Kornhauser, W. (1959), The Politics of Mass Society (Glencoe, IL: The Free Press).
Lipset, S. (1959), ‘Some Social Requisites of Democracy’, American Political Science Review 53,
69–​105.
Merton, R. K. (1968), Social Theory and Social Structure (New York: The Free Press).
Shin, D. C. (2012), Confucianism and Democratization in East Asia (New York: Cambridge
University Press).
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
presented to us, the youthful editor of “Jim Jam Jems,” Mr. Sam H.
Clark, of Bismarck, North Dakota, and his attractive wife. There were
other ladies in his party, all going to the park. They were attired in the
costume of khaki breeches, puttees, and coats, looking very Western
and comfortable.
We remarked that we were unfortunate, in never having seen a
copy of “Jim Jam Jems.” “You surprise me; it is on sale at six
hundred news-stands in New York City.” Feeling like mere worms,
we expressed the hope of seeing it in San Francisco. On our arrival,
we asked for it at the news-stand in one of the largest hotels. “We
get it only about once in two months,” we were told. Later we found
the September issue, which we read with interest. In the “Monthly
Preamble” he says, “Fact is, this good old U. S. A. seems to have
slipped its trolley, politically, industrially, and socially, and generally
things be out of joint.” That seemed to be the tone of the whole
publication. I do not know the particular significance of the name of
his magazine; but if he ever decided to make a change I wonder if he
would consider “The Knocker Club in Session.” Mr. Clark is a
reformer in embryo, and his talents are unquestioned. Perhaps, in
the broad-minded, open West, he will in time find something
constructive to write about. Let us watch and see.
After a very jolly visit, all too short, we started for Livingston and
Gardiner, the northern entrance to the park. The sky was dense with
smoke, due to the forest fires in the north. In Oregon a town had
been wiped out the day before. Our eyes smarted from the smoke;
the mountains, now the foothills of the Rockies, were entirely
obliterated, and, if this kept up, we could see nothing in the park.
Cars were turning back, and the prospect was not encouraging. The
road grew more steep and narrow, and we could hardly see a
quarter of a mile ahead of us. It was like a real London fog—pea
soup. The altitude was very high, and we began to feel dizzy. We
were on roads that were just shelves cut in the sides of the
mountains, with hardly room for two cars to pass and a good long
tumble on the lower side. It was not pleasant! On a clear day
perhaps, but not in a dense fog.
 Passing through Livingston, you turn due south for fifty-five
miles. At four o’clock we arrived at Gardiner, where we had a belated
lunch at a restaurant, and found a collection of five weeks’ mail at
the post-office. Joy!—and then more joy! We all wired home to
anxious relatives of our arrival. The huge stone arch forms the
gateway to the park. The officials, old army veterans, in uniform,
stopped us and we paid $7.50 entrance fee for the car. There is no
tax for people. We were questioned about firearms. None are
allowed, and we had none.
 XI

A WONDERLAND

As Joaquin Miller said of the Grand Canyon in Arizona, “Is any fifty
miles of Mother Earth as fearful, or any part as fearful, as full of
glory, as full of God?” That is the Yellowstone National Park!
So much has been written of its wonder and beauty that it is
“carrying coals to Newcastle” for me to add any description. It
beggars description! None of us had visited it before; so the
experiences were doubly interesting, and these facts we had
forgotten, if we had ever known them: In 1872, Congress made this
a national park. It is sixty-two miles long and fifty-four miles wide,
giving an area of 3348 square miles in Wyoming, Idaho, and
Montana, and is under the supervision of the National Park Service
of the Interior Department. The entire region is volcanic; you are
impressed by a sense of nearness to Nature’s secret laboratories.
The park is open from June 20th to September 15th. It is
estimated that sixty thousand visitors have enjoyed the splendors of
the park this year (1919). We reached there August 20th, at the
height of the tourist season. On entering, we drove five miles in a
dense smoke along the Gardiner River to Mammoth Hot Springs
Hotel. There we spent our first night and held a “council of war.” If
the smoke did not lift, we could see nothing and would have to wait.
Of course, we intended to drive our car through the park! After
looking the situation over and talking with other tourists, we decided
to go in the Government cars, for three reasons: First, whoever
drove could see nothing of the scenery—you had to keep your eye
on the road every moment, as the ways were so steep, with
hundreds of sharp curves; second, we were unaccustomed to the
very high altitude, an average of eight thousand feet, all were feeling
dizzy (one of the ladies had a severe nosebleed), and no “light-
headed” driver was safe in handling a car on those roads; third, if
you are familiar with the routes, or follow the Government cars and
get their dust, all right; if not, you will get off the main roads in no
time. The Government has very comfortable White cars, holding
eleven and the driver. All the roads are officially inspected daily, and
the drivers are expert. You buy a motor ticket for twenty-five dollars,
and that ends your responsibility. You have unlimited time at the
hotels, if you so desire; otherwise, the trip is made in three days, with
ample time to see everything, and even to take side trips.
There were three hotels open this season—the Mammoth Hot
Springs, Old Faithful, and the Grand Canyon. They are run
exclusively on the American plan, at six dollars a day, with good food
and every comfort. A private bath is two dollars extra; with two in a
room, four dollars, or, if the bath adjoins two rooms, with two in each
room, it is two dollars each, or the modest sum of eight dollars. We
found that the tourists in the Government cars were cared for first in
the dining-room and always had good rooms reserved for them. This
is quite a consideration in the rush season. Thus with your motor
ticket of twenty-five dollars, your full three days’ hotel bill at six
dollars a day, including side trips, tips, etc., the park can be seen in
absolute comfort for fifty dollars, with nothing to worry about. As we
had been driving the car so steadily for six weeks, the relaxation was
very acceptable. The three hotels are quite different. The Mammoth
Hot Springs is a big barn of a place in appearance, lacking home
atmosphere, but warms up a bit in the evening when dancing begins.
The next morning, to our joy, the wind had shifted and the smoke
lifted, so we were safe in starting. The cars leave at nine and reach
Old Faithful Inn by noon. Here you stay until the next noon. On this
first lap of the tour you pass the wonderful Terraces, filled with boiling
springs, which look like cascades of jewels in the sunlight. Passing
the Devil’s Kitchen, Lookout Point, and the Hoodoos, massive blocks
of travertine, piled up in every conceivable shape, at an altitude of
seven thousand feet, and Golden Gate Canyon, you emerge into an
open, smiling mountain valley with high ranges on every side,
through which runs the Gardiner River. The Frying Pan is a sizzling,
boiling pool that comes from the bowels of the earth. The Norris
Geyser Basin is filled with small geysers, spouting at intervals, and
looking like bursts of steam. Emerald Pool is typical of the name. As
you look down into it, the gorgeous color deepens like a real gem.
The most beautiful example of these pools is the Mammoth Paint
Pot, with myriads of scintillating colors.
We could hardly wait to finish lunch, we were so anxious to see
the famous Old Faithful spout, or “play,” more properly speaking. At
regular intervals of about seventy minutes, the mass of water is
thrown 150 feet into the air with a roar of escaping steam that
sounds like the exhaust of an ocean liner. At night an immense
searchlight on the roof of the hotel plays upon it, and everyone goes
to the farther side to view the water with the light showing through—
a glorious sight! I can think of nothing but thousands of gems being
tossed up by a waterspout at sea. The rainbow colors dance and
radiate, making a fairyland scene. The chorus of “Ohs!” and “Ahs!”
resembles a crowd viewing a pyrotechnic display on the 4th of July.
We were fortunate in seeing both the Giant and Castle geysers play.
The Old Faithful Inn is unique, it being built entirely of the park
timber in the rough, hewed from the twisted trees of the forests. The
fossil forests are one of the marvels of the park, not all at a particular
level, but occurring at irregular heights; in fact, a section cut down
through these two thousand feet of beds, would disclose a
succession of fossil forests, covered by volcanic material through the
ages.
The great open fireplaces of boulders in the hotel always gave a
cheery appearance, and in the evenings the attendants pop corn for
the guests. A very good orchestra played until midnight and
hundreds of people danced on the polished floors. The table is
excellent in all the hotels. Our only criticism was that the guests were
kept waiting outside of the dining-room until all tables were cleared
and reset, when we could have just as well been sitting comfortably
inside. In front of the hotel are the bath-houses, with many small
pools and one large one. The prices are moderate. All rates, even for
postcards, are regulated by the Government officials in the park.
 Toodles had informed us early in our trip that she would not be
happy unless she met “a real cowboy, of the William S. Hart type,
and a real Indian.” Up to now she had been disappointed. We were
sitting out under the trees by the hotel, waiting for Old Faithful to
“shoot,” when the real article came by on horseback, leading two
saddled horses. He was a tall, fine-looking chap, with all the
proverbial trappings of an old-time cowboy, riding as if he were a part
of his horse. As he was close to us, Toodles called out, “Were you
looking for me?” He took no notice, and she repeated it. He rode on,
never even turning his head. “The brute must be deaf,” a rather
piqued voice informed us. We had been accustomed to such
unusual courtesy from Westerners that this surprised us. In a few
moments he returned, rode up in front of us, and, with a merry
twinkle in his eyes and looking straight at Toodles, said:
“I heard you the first time. Now come and ride with me.”
We all laughed but Toodles. She lost her tone of bravado, and
exclaimed, “If you heard, why didn’t you answer me?”
“Oh, just busy. Had to deliver my horses.” His manner was jolly,
and it looked like a little adventure.
She wanted to go, but she had recourse to the time-honored “I
have nothing to wear.”
“That doesn’t matter; I will fit you out. Ever ride astride?”
“No.”
“Ever ride at all?”
“Of course, all my life!” (indignantly).
“Then come along. I will give you the finest horse in the park to
ride, and show you views that the tourists never see.”
We all urged her to go, one lending a hat, another a coat, until at
last she appeared with a khaki divided skirt, white blouse, blue coat,
and sailor hat, looking very presentable, very pretty, and rather ill at
ease. While Toodles was dressing he told us that he had been in the
park for years and had charge of the saddle-horses and riding
parties. As it was all a lark, and we thought she might not want her
name known to him, we told him that her name was “Toodles.” “All
right,” with a grin; “I’m on.” When starting he whistled to his dog and
called, “Come on, Toodles,” and she nearly fell off her horse (he
made her ride astride).
“What’s the matter? I am just calling my dog.”
“Oh, is that your dog’s name?” Toodles replied faintly. “How
funny!”
Off they rode up the mountains, and did not return until six
o’clock. That evening “Charlie” appeared at the dance in ordinary
citizen’s clothes, but the picturesque cowboy was gone. He had
written a book of “all the fool questions people have asked me in
twenty years.” He kept us gasping at the tales of Western adventure
until nearly midnight. In the morning he was on hand to see us off.
The next day was clear and beautiful. Our road took us east over
the Continental Divide and along the shores of Yellowstone Lake,
past the mud geysers, to the Grand Canyon Hotel. On the divide is
lily-covered Isa Lake, whose waters in springtime hesitate whether to
flow out one end, into the Pacific, or out the other, into Atlantic
waters, and usually compromise by going in both directions. We
passed over very steep grades commanding a superb view of Mt.
Washburne (ten thousand feet high) through the knotted woods and
dense pine forests, past the upper and lower falls, stopping at Artist’s
Point to get our first view of the Grand Canyon. It is twenty miles
long—the most glorious kaleidoscope of color you will ever see in
nature! You look down a thousand feet or more at the foaming
Yellowstone River. A little south of this point a waterfall twice as high
as Niagara, seemingly out of the dense pine heights above, roars
and tumbles into the depths below. “Rocky needles rise
perpendicularly for hundreds of feet, like groups of Gothic spires.”
Again, “the rocks, carved and fretted by the frost and the erosion of
the ages.” And the coloring—this is almost impossible to describe.
From the deepest orange to pale yellow, from Indian red to exquisite
shell-pink, in all shades of soft green touched by Autumn’s hand.
With the greenish cascade of water foaming beneath us and the blue
dome of the heavens above, we stood there awed by its fearful
majesty and unequaled beauty. As if to make the picture more
perfect, an eagle soared through the canyon, lighting on a pinnacle
of jagged rocks, where his nest clung as if by magic. As we watched
him in silence, the words of Tennyson, to which McDowell has
written his exquisite composition, “The Eagle,” came to us:

“He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunder-bolt he falls.”

Another wonderful, and, if it were possible, a more beautiful

view, is from Inspiration Point, on the other side of the canyon. It is
like the most exquisite cameo. Before you a gigantic mass of rocks,
with turrets and towers, known as “Castle Ruins,” seems to fill the
vista. But, as I said before, it simply beggars description. You stand
there in the presence of the marvelous works of God, the evidences
of great convulsions of nature through the ages. You feel such an
atom in the vastness, the unending space of the Infinite, and you
recall the words of Victor Hugo in his “Intellectual Autobiography”:

“Beyond the visible, the invisible; beyond the invisible, the

Unknown. Everywhere, everywhere, in the zenith, at the nadir, in
front, behind, above, below, in the heights, in the depths, looms
the formidable darkness of the Infinite.”

The Grand Canyon Hotel is in every respect a modern,

beautifully furnished, palatial establishment, worthy of any city. This
is the most popular hotel, and is always crowded. The governors of
twenty-one states and their parties were touring the park. They
expressed their appreciation of the Government’s activities in behalf
of the comforts and conveniences for the people—also, of its
shortcomings, in the failure to provide the necessary funds for further
improvements.
We found the roads in most places worthy of the name
“highways”; but on the steepest grades, where the outside of the
road shelves off into space, with a drop of hundreds of feet, there are
no walls or fences, not even railings, to prevent accidents. In the
main, the roads are sufficiently wide to allow two cars to pass; in
some places, however, the smaller car must back down to a siding to
allow the Government cars, which have the right of way on the inside
of the road, to pass. Many times we hung on by our eyebrows,
apparently, and felt as if our “tummies” had sunk into our boots. We
found it more comfortable to look up than down into the depths.
Today we met our small boys again. I had forgotten them. After
leaving Minneapolis, many times we had overtaken two boys, who
were making a hike to the park, a distance of over nine hundred
miles. They were about sixteen years of age, as sturdy, polite little
chaps as you could meet. Many times we had given them a lift of fifty
miles or more into the next town. They told us that they had earned
the money for the trip and carried their camping outfits on their
backs. They camped near a haystack at night, bought food (or had it
given to them) on the road, and were having the time of their lives.
When I thought of the Dakota prairies and Bad Lands, and of the hot,
dusty Montana plains, I realized more than ever the sturdy stuff that
Westerners are made of. I would like to know what the future holds
for those two lads.
The last day of our trip was back to the starting-point, Mammoth
Hot Springs Hotel. That morning Toodles left us, taking the trip out to
the eastern entrance at Cody. This charming little lady had been with
us six weeks, and we were sorry to see her go.
We were told that the scenery was even finer on the Cody road,
but we could not conceive of it.
After going a few miles from the hotel, through a bit of woods,
our driver jammed on his brakes, with the news, “Here are the
bears!”—two good-sized cubs and the mother bear holding us up!
They were in the middle of the road; so we had to stop. Everyone
wants to see the bears in the park. Well, we did! The old one, a big
cinnamon bear, walked around to the side of the car, stood on her
hind legs, with her front paws on the door of the car and her muzzle
in my lap! I never was so scared in my life! “She wants the candy,”
the others exclaimed. I had a box of chocolates in my lap, and, with
my hands shaking like aspens, I began to peel off the silver foil from
one piece. “Don’t stop for that; give her the candy, or she will be in
the car!” yelled the driver. And you better believe I did, in short order!
Handing her the box, she gobbled every piece, foil and all. Everyone
was standing on the seats with a camera trying to snap the picture.
After she sniffed about to see if I had any more, she went to all the
cars lined up back of us, where they fed her and the cubs everything
they carried. They had to, for she foraged for herself. I assure you
that the sensation of having a huge bear eat out of your hand is a
thriller! There are black and grizzly (or silver-tip) bears in the park. A
few venture out of the woods to the camps and garbage-dumps near
the hotels. Of course, the forests are full of large and small game.
There are two buffalo herds. The tame herd has increased from
twenty animals, in 1902, to 385, in October, 1918. We saw mountain-
sheep and many deer.
We went over the Dunraven Pass, one of the most daring drives,
getting a fine view of Tower Falls, 132 feet high. In fact, that last day
was one long thrill. We reached the hotel for dinner feeling a bit limp
and exhausted, we had been at such high tension for three days. We
sat by the roaring log fire that evening, living it all over again. “Will
you ever forget that view of the canyon?”—“How truly wonderful the
trip has been!” It was truly wonderful! I have not given you even an
approximate idea of the scenery or the wonders. I can only say, “Go
and see it for yourself.” For those who enjoy camping, every comfort
and facility are provided. If you wish to camp de luxe, the
Yellowstone Park Camping Company maintains five permanent
camps or “tent cities” in the park. All tents have floors, electric lights,
and are heated by wood-burning stoves. The beds are full-sized and
comfortable. There are large dining-halls, recreation pavilions, and
“campfires.” The campers in the park were legion this season.
 The next morning we bade good-by to Mrs. H., who left us for
Gardiner, and the “bird-man” and his lady chauffeur proceeded
together.
 XII

WESTWARD HO!

Everyone had the same disconsolate story to tell of the route

through Idaho and Nevada to the Coast. (I often have wondered why
the expression “The Coast” means but one place, the Pacific Coast.
We have a few thousand miles of sea-coast on the Atlantic, but no
one ever speaks of going East “to the Coast.”) All the motor parties
we met that came that way to the park advised us to go north from
Gardiner, over the Yellowstone Trail to Spokane and Seattle, and
then down the coast to San Francisco. One man said, “I wouldn’t
take five thousand dollars to go back over those roads!” We had
practically decided to go the northern route, but the forest fires were
still raging in that section, and many cars were turned back. It was
Hobson’s choice; we had no alternative.
Our car had been left in the garage at Mammoth. On leaving we
found there was no charge for the four days’ storage. It seemed like
home to be back in our own car again. We followed the same route
that we took to Old Faithful until we reached Gibbon Falls, then
turned west along the Madison River to the western gate at
Yellowstone, and so out of the park into Idaho.
If there are worse roads anywhere on earth than in Idaho, I hope
we may never see them! It had grown hot, and every mile of the way
was hotter. Sand, dust, ruts three feet deep, and chuck-holes at
every turn! In contrast to the roads in the park, that state is a
nightmare! By the time we had reached Ashton (123 miles), we
wished we had never seen Idaho. The Kirkbride Hotel was wretched,
with only one bathroom for the establishment, no café, and dirty
beyond expression. The town has but one street, a typical cowboy
town, as primitive as possible. The hotel manager asked if we
carried our own bedding! “Do we look as if we did?” No reply. We
probably did—and worse. It seems that the camping parties from the
park often brought things beside bedding with them! At ten that night
we found some food, in a wretched Chinese restaurant.
The next day was hot and dusty, and there were more bad
roads; but we knew that we should find a good hotel at Pocatello,
with private bath and decent food. We went through Idaho Falls and
the Blackfoot Reservation.
An incident occurred here that would have made Toodles green
with envy. We were taking advantage of our first stretch of good road
in two days, and going at a lively speed. Away ahead, in the middle
of the road, stood a solitary figure. We sounded our horn. The figure
did not budge. Then we blew a blast that would have raised
Rameses II and came to a stop a few feet from a man. He proved to
be a “real honest-to-gosh,” as they say out here, Indian chief. His
frame was massive and his face square-jawed, of a copper-bronze
hue. A crimson kerchief, earrings, and beads, with ordinary trousers
and shirt, completed his costume. He stood there like a dethroned
emperor. With a dignified majesty, he waved his arm and said, “Take
me home.” I turned to look at him as he sat, with folded arms, alone
in the tonneau, with an air that plainly said, “I owned all this once; it
is all mine.” He told us that he was chief of the Shoshone tribe, and
owned 250 acres; that he rented two of his ranches and lived on the
one “where the trees were, a mile up the road.” The land was under
high cultivation, with fine buildings. When we let him out he just
waved us on, saying, “Me good American.” I wondered if at heart he
really were, or if he knew that he had to be. We often saw Indian
women on the roadside selling garden truck—always with a stolid
expression, and seldom a smile. If you spoke to them, their
invariable rejoinder was “You bet” (pronounced “U-bit”). This seems
to be the prevailing expression in the West.
The Yellowstone Hotel in Pocatello is very good, and crowded,
like all of the Western hotels.
 The heat was intense, even at nine in the morning, and Ogden,
Utah, 165 miles south. “Are the roads good?” we asked the clerk.
Smiling, he replied, “I am from New York.” At Dayton, we crossed the
border into Utah. Before us lay a cement road as white as snow. We
could hardly believe our eyes. “Woman, bow down and worship!” the
bird-man exclaimed. Regardless of speed laws, we flew over that
road for miles, through beautiful towns and avenues of Lombardy
poplars. We remarked that every little bungalow was surrounded by
these tall trees. “The Mormons must have planted one for each wife
and child.” The farms were fertile and well cultivated, and for miles
the peach orchards lined the sides of the road, the trees laden with
fruit. At each station wagons were unloading hundreds of crates
ready for shipment. Tomatoes and melons, also, are raised in
abundance. Brigham is a clean, attractive city, with peach-trees
growing in every garden and on the roadside. They celebrate an
annual “Peach day” in September. “Every visitor will receive a
peach,” the posters read. I bought a basket, of a dozen or more, for
ten cents. Here we became acquainted with the red grasshopper.
We thought we had left all of these little pests in Fargo; but here they
were as lively as ever and as red as strawberries. And that reminds
me—we have had delicious strawberries for weeks (in August).
The roads were so wonderful that we forgot our aching
backbones and enjoyed every mile of the way into Ogden, to the
Reed Hotel. We spent two days here, as there was much of interest
to see and do. The hotel is old, but well kept up. We had a room
large enough to hold a convention in, with a smaller bedroom and
bath adjoining, and eight large windows altogether. Again the hotel
was crowded. The railroad strike was on in California, and people
were marooned in every city; only local trains were running.
The next day we drove to Salt Lake City, a distance of about
thirty-five miles. Of all the Western cities, we were most anxious to
see the capital of Utah. And now a joke at my expense! I asked the
clerk in the hotel where we could get the steamer for Salt Lake City.
“What steamer?” he asked in surprise.
“Can’t you go there by boat?”
 “Say, lady, I guess you come from the East.”
I admitted the truth of that.
“Ever been West before?”
This time a negative.
“Don’t you know that the boat has never been built that will float
on Salt Lake?”
I thought of “Cowboy Charlie” and his book of “fool questions.”
Salt Lake is a wonderful city. Whatever you may think of the
Mormons, you have to admit that they are a far-sighted, industrious,
and executive people. Your chief interest centers about the Temple
Block, a ten-acre square surrounded by a stone and adobe wall
twelve feet high. The grounds are a beautiful park. The Bureau of
Information is a fine large building, where literature is distributed to
three hundred thousand visitors yearly. As many as thirty-nine states
and seven foreign countries had been represented on the registry in
one day. “No fees charged, and no donations received,” was the
watchword on these grounds. We wondered how the place was
supported, and were told that there were no pew-rentals in any of
their churches, and no collections made, nor were there any
contribution-boxes found there.
“The Mormons observe the ancient law of tithing, as it was given
to the Children of Israel, by which a member pays one-tenth of his
income, as a free-will offering, for the support of the Church.”
In the Temple Block is the Assembly Hall, a semi-Gothic
structure of gray granite, with a seating capacity of two thousand,
often used for public lectures and concerts by any denomination.
The Tabernacle is a world-famed auditorium, seating eight thousand
people, noted for its remarkable construction and acoustic
properties. The wooden roof, self-supporting, rests upon buttresses
of red sandstone, twelve feet apart, the whole circumference of the
building. These pillars support wooden arches ten feet in thickness
and spanning 150 feet. The arches, of a lattice-truss construction,
are put together with wooden pins, there being no nails or iron of any
kind used in the framework. The building was erected between 1863
and 1870, and was nearly completed before the railroads reached
Utah. All the imported material had to be hauled with ox-teams from
the Missouri River. The original cost was three hundred thousand
dollars, exclusive of the cost of the organ. Our guide, a lady, told us
that their pioneer leader, Brigham Young, had planned and
supervised the erection of the building. “He was a glazier and
cabinet-maker by trade, but had been schooled chiefly by hardship
and experience. He not only designed this and the Temple, but he
built an equally wonderful commonwealth; one which is unique
among the Middle and Western states for law and order, religious
devotion and loyalty.” She told us that their church had established
headquarters successively in New York, Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois,
and, after the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, in 1846, it was
obliged to seek refuge in the Rocky Mountains. They have no
professional or paid preachers; any member of the congregation
may be called upon to address them. We were interested to hear of
their women. “They are the freest, most intensely individualistic
women on earth, having three organizations of their own. The Relief
Society has thirty thousand members, publishes a monthly
periodical, has up-to-date offices, owns many ward-houses, and
spends thousands of dollars yearly for charity and education. The
Young Ladies’ Mutual Improvement Association was organized in
1869 by Brigham Young, chiefly among his own daughters.” (Some
family party!) This association now numbers over thirty thousand
girls. It also edits and controls a magazine. Besides these activities,
there is the Primary Association, with many thousands of children
marshaled under its banner. We remembered that the women have
full suffrage in Utah, and were not surprised to hear of their ward
conferences and public speakers. This did not sound much like the
“down-trodden slaves” that many consider the Mormon women to be.
Most prominent among the structures in the “Block” is the
Temple, began less than six years after the pioneers found here a
desolate sagebrush wilderness. Before railroads were built to the
granite quarries, twenty miles southeast of the city, the huge blocks
of stone were hauled by ox-teams, requiring at times four yoke of
oxen four days to transport a single stone! Forty years were required
in its completion, and the structure stands as a monument to the
untiring energy of these people. Its cost, in all, was four million
dollars. Visitors have never been admitted to the Temple since its
dedication in 1893. “It was not designed as a place of public
assembly,” our guide informed us; “it is to us a holy place devoted to
sacred ordinances, and open only to our own church members in
good standing.” I wish that space permitted me to quote all that we
heard of their marriages, and even divorces, and of their many
quaint customs.
The figure surmounting the Temple is twelve feet in height, of
hammered copper covered with gold leaf, and represents the angel
Moroni, the son of Mormon, the writer of the Book of Mormon, which
“is an inspired historical record of the ancient inhabitants of the
American continent, corresponding to the Old Testament.” Mormon,
who lived about 400 A. D., was one of the last of their prophets, and
into the Book of Mormon compiled the traditions which had come to
him through generations. This is not the Mormon Bible, for they use
the King James translation that our Christian churches use.
The Sea-Gull Monument is also in the “Block.” It commemorates
a historic incident of pioneer days, and was designed by Mahonri M.
Young, a grandson of Brigham. A granite base of twenty tons, resting
on a concrete foundation, supports a granite column fifteen feet high,
surmounted by a granite globe. Two bronze sea-gulls rest upon this
ball. The birds weigh five hundred pounds, and the stretch of their
wings is eight feet. On three sides of the base, in relief sculpture, the
sea-gull story is told, which, briefly, is this: In 1848 this was the
earliest settlement in the Rocky Mountains, and less than a year old,
consisting of a camp, a log and mud fort enclosing huts, tents and
wagons, with about eighteen hundred people. Their handful of crops
the first year, mainly potatoes, having failed, they were looking for a
good harvest the second year, or they would face starvation. In the
spring of 1848 five thousand acres of land were under cultivation in
the valley, nine hundred with winter wheat. Then came the plague of
crickets (our friends the grasshopper family). “They rolled in legions
down the mountain sides, attacking the young grain and destroying
the crops.” Men, women and children fought them with brooms, with
fire, and even dug ditches and turned water into the trenches. It
looked hopeless; their crops seemed doomed, when great flocks of
sea-gulls swept down on the crickets and devoured them. The
Mormons compare the incident to the saving of Rome by the
cackling geese.
We heard an amusing story of how Brigham Young came by his
name. Originally his surname was “Brigham.” Once, when his agent
returned with some prospective brides, Brigham, looking them over
and finding them too old, exclaimed, “Go find others, and bring ’em
young.”
The Utah Hotel is one of the finest in the country. It is owned and
run by the Mormons, and it does them great credit. We dined in the
roof-garden, which compares favorably with that of any hotel in New
York. You look off to the Wasatch range of mountains, the beautiful
fertile valley, and the great Salt Lake, beyond which lies the desert.
The executive staff of the Mormon Church has one of the finest
buildings in the city. The interior is paneled with native marbles and
woods and represents a fortune.
Returning to Ogden, we spent the next day visiting Ogden
Canyon, a short trip of twenty miles. We drove through groves of
walnut trees laden with nuts. Making a sharp turn on a good
macadam road, you wind through a deep canyon gorgeous with
autumn foliage, a beautiful sight. The river bank is lined with vine-
covered bungalows, almost hidden from view. The canyon streams
are noted for the brook-trout fishing. A Boston chap told us that he
and two other boys caught ninety pounds in three days. We lunched
at the Hermitage, the best-known resort near Ogden. It is built of
logs, in the wildest part of the canyon. The house was decorated
with ferns and mountain wild flowers, as artistically as a private
home. We certainly enjoyed the brook-trout dinner ($1.50) of fish
caught that day in front of the hotel. Of course, this cannot be
compared to Yellowstone Canyon, but it is very beautiful and well
worth the trip from Ogden.
That evening we pored over maps. There was no route across
the desert that was good—only some were worse than others.
Everyone advised us to take the “Pike’s Peak Ocean-to-Ocean
Highway,” which follows the Southern Pacific Railroad (at intervals),
and is considered a “safety-first” way.
I never see that word “highway” that I don’t want to laugh! A
“cow-path” would more nearly describe any that we traveled in Idaho
or Nevada (not to mention a few others).
 XIII

NEVADA AND THE DESERT

We did not look forward with an atom of pleasure to this part of

the trip. We dreaded it. It simply had to be done. The officials told us
that nearly all the tourists shipped their cars to Reno. That was
valuable information to give us, when not a train was running west.
The clerk pointed out a dried-up little woman of seventy, and said,
with a withering glance at me: “See that old lady? She has driven her
own car across the desert twice this summer!” Well, you know how
such remarks make you feel. Not that you care a—bit what that clerk
thought of you, but you don’t like to realize that you are a molly-
coddle or a coward. Besides, my husband had laughed at my
apprehensions, and that wouldn’t do either. So I thought of our good
fortune so far, of our slogan, and of the old party of seventy, and I
gave my pride a hitch and said, “Let’s start”—and we did.
Our route lay over the same road back through Brigham, a
beautiful drive that far, then it turned northwest, over the northern
part of the Great Salt Lake desert, ninety miles to Snowville. The
sand was so deep that we crawled most of the way. The sun
scorched our skin and eyes until they felt dry as ashes. We had left
the railroad and telegraph poles and had but a single-file path
through the sand, with chuck-holes every few feet. When the wind
blew it felt as if an oven-door had been opened in your face, and the
snow-white sand covered everything, including the tracks in the
road, which was not pleasant. Nothing was to be seen except the
endless sand, dry sagebrush, cactus, and an occasional prairie-dog.
We met but two cars that day. I can conceive of nothing more utterly
desolate and God-forsaken than the desert. There is a silence of