Patriotism In South Korea

3131 Words13 Pages
Introduction For many reasons, South Korea holds a very special place on the geopolitical scene. Looking at its history and current international relations, it makes no doubt that centuries of Chinese and Japanese domination, and decades of war (passive or active) with its Northern neighbor have shaped the Korean society in a very unique way. The present situation with North Korea obviously has the biggest impact on the way society works. In politics, the government has been somewhat forced to constitutionally maintain a compulsory conscription for all Korean men from 18 to 35 years old; the country hence maintains its military personnel in the case of a war breakout. Socially, South Korea has often been described as a mono-ethnic society…show more content…
Even in nationalism, there seems to be different branches: political nationalism and ethnic nationalism. While the notion of political nationalism is very similar to the one described by Kosterman and Feshbach, understanding ethnic nationalism somehow brings a different light to the current study. It does appear that the distinction between ethnic nationalism and patriotism is even more blurred. To some extent, ethnic nationalism emphasizes the importance of racial unity but does not have the negative correlation of political nationalism. While patriotism is the love of a country, ethnic nationalism is a racial pride; as such, it does not encompass visions on values and culture . While the notion of ethnic nationalism is compelling for a study on the effects of military conscription, it is far too restrictive: ethnic nationalism should therefore be considered as a sub-component of patriotism. Furthermore, studying military conscription’s effects implicitly implies the analysis of ethnic nationalism: conscription is only open to South Korean, which obviously impacts the racial unity that South Korean men…show more content…
Since patriotism has been described as an educational construct that could be somehow inherited from family, it is important that the sample reflects these possibilities. Even though the respondents’ answers are expected to yield more knowledge, it is possible their characteristics can also contribute to understanding the roots of patriotism and see if thy act as prerequisite in the development of patriotic

More about Patriotism In South Korea

Open Document