2015, Vol., No.46

Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.39

pISSN : 1598-4230 / eISSN : 2586-7601
https://journal.kci.go.kr/ihss

Mahatma Gandhi’s example demonstrates that global citizens can connect to humanity worldwide while retaining their natural roots: national, racial, regional. Such an understanding of global citizenship seems imperative in a world beset with conflicts, hatred, prejudice, and environmental, economic and military issues demanding global solutions. In fact, a sense of global-belonging must precede the notion of global citizenship. After dealing with his sense of global belonging, the author reflects on Gandhi’s life and vision as that of a global citizen. The way he worked hard to uplift people from all ways of life, his spirit of embracing the good in every religion, his openness to diverse political views or opinions, and his ability to reach out to his enemies and rivals make him a hero of global citizenship. Though he was rooted in his tradition, culture and religion, he truly belonged to the world. As an inspirational icon for global citizenship, Gandhi’s life and message is a call to become aware of the global challenges we face. His ideals and way of life – ahimsa and satyagraha – tell us that we have the cultural, religious and human resources to deal with the life-threatening crisis facing us.

This paper is not a research study but rather a preliminary framework constructed with regard to the problem of national competitiveness in the Republic of Korea, at a time of economic stasis and political and social disquiet. In order to strengthen South Korean economic competitiveness, major components of the Korean socio-economic and political structure need to draw on the lessons of systems thinking. In the globalized period, the systems approach necessary to optimize Korean competitiveness would build towards the unified identity of global citizenship. This would require redefining Korea’s comparative advantage in terms of human capital accumulated through education and invested in interactions with other nations. The most productive contemporary comparative advantage, in terms of co-evolution, ultimately is based on global citizenship as part of the evolution of shared rights and responsibilities within universal citizenship.

This paper deals with what is necessary for the success of electoral manifestos. First, this paper points out that within a representative democracy the manifesto movement can revive the original meaning of popular participation and deliberation. Elections in Korea had been reduced simply to selecting representatives. The publication of manifestos can transform electoral politics and candidate selection processes into elections built around the competing policies of parties and candidates. But in a complex society, the various interests of people are difficult to reconcile within manifestos, while it is hard for voters to evaluate the truthfulness of the electoral pledges submitted by parties and candidates. Civil education for democratic citizenship and civic improvement of critical thinking skills are therefore preconditions for successful implementation of the manifesto movement.