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The Politics of Hegemonic Despotism: A Case Study of the Seoul City Official “Spy-Making” Incident

  • 인문논총
  • 2021, 54(), pp.91-110
  • DOI : 10.33638/JHS.54.5
  • Publisher : Institute for Human studies, Kyungnam University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : December 31, 2020
  • Accepted : February 4, 2021
  • Published : February 28, 2021

JaeYoun Won 1 LEE MIN JEE 1

1연세대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on a case of the Seoul City Official “Spy-Making” Incident to examine the complex nature of politics in post-authoritarian South Korea. The series of “spy-making” incidents under military dictatorship in South Korea had been despotic, frequently involving physical violence and forced confessions. In this paper, we argue that the nature of the Seoul City Official “Spy-Making” Incident (2013) is much more complex, that it has another dimension of hegemonic citizenship practice in addition to the despotic state practice. In this sense, the old despotic “spy-making” practice is dying hard even in the post-authoritarian democratic regimes of South Korea. Theoretically, this paper aims to challenge and demystify Aihwa Ong’s notion of flexible citizenship in the context of the divided Koreas. While a chosen few might enjoy the privilege of “flexible citizenship” under the neoliberal democratic order, others fall prey to the rigidity of the new and lasting boundary-making politics.

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