Abstract
Appreciating the many, varied and sometimes ambiguous elements within what may be called ‘Korean culture’ is crucial to a balanced assessment of its relationship to corruption. In particular, it is important to recognise its multivocality and thus its paradoxical relationship with its environment, its tendency to be shaped as well as shape modern institutions and the degree to which it is open to interpretation and contestation and thus to being compromised or altered to meet historical contingencies or political objectives. This approach provides the basis for the type of cultural analysis that can identify some of the cultural influences not only on some forms of corruption but on how a society understands the norms of good governance and what constitutes a deviation from these norms and thus what political corruption involves and why. It may also help us to understand how corruption can be disguised or justified within the Korean context.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ahn, B.-Y., “Pichagum Kwa Taekwon Yokui Chuakhan Janch'i (The Disgusting Feast of Illicit Funds and Presidential Hunger for Power)”, Shindonga, 1995 (December), 112–121.
Bae, S.-K. and J. Cotton, “Regionalism in electoral politics”, in J. Cotton (ed.), Korea Under Roh Tae-woo (St Leonards, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1993), pp. 170–184.
Bardhan, P., “Corruption and Development: A Review of the Issues”, Journal of Economic Literature, 1997 (35: 3), pp. 1320–1346.
Bellah, R. and P.E. Hammond, Varieties of Civil Religion (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1980).
Bouissou, J.-M., “Gifts, Network and Clienteles, Corruption in Japan as a Redistributive System,” in D. Della-Porter and Y. Mény, Democracy and Corruption in Europe (London: Pinter, 1997).
Brandt, V., A Korean Village Between Farm and Sea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971).
Brock-Utne, B., Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Peace Education (New York: Pergamon, 1989).
Chambliss, W., On the Take: From Petty Crooks to Presidents, 2nd edn. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988).
Choi, J.J., “Political Cleavages in South Korea,” in H. Koo (ed.), State and Society in Contemporary Korea (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 13–50.
Chua, B.H., “Culturalisation of Economy and Politics in Singapore,” in R. Robinson (ed.), Pathways to Asia (St Leonards: Allen and Unwin, 1996), pp. 87–104.
Clifford, M., Troubled Tiger: The Unauthorised Biography of Korea Inc. (Singapore: Butterworth Heinemann Asia, 1994).
Cotton, J., “Opposition in Asian Constitutional Systems: Characteristics and Democratic Potential,” Government and Opposition, 1994 (31: 2), 179–203.
Eckert, C.J., “The South Korean Bourgeoisie: A Class in Search of Hegemony,” in H. Koo (ed.), State and Civil Society in Contemporary Korea (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 95–130.
Eckert, C.J., Offspring of Empire: The Koch'ang Kims and the Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism. 1876–1910 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991).
Eckert, C.J., L. Ki-baik, Y.I. Lew, M. Robinson and E.W. Wagner, Korea Old and New: A History (Seoul: Ilchokak Publishers, 1990).
Ekpo, M., “Gift-Giving and Bureaucratic Corruption in Nigeria,” in M. Ekpo (ed.), Bureaucratic Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa, Causes, Consequence and controls (Washington, DC: University Press of America, 1970).
Ellis, R.J. and M. Thompson (eds.), Culture Matters: Essays in Honor of Aaron Wildavsky (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1997).
Fukuyama, F., Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1995).
Gardiner, J.A., “Defining Corruption,” Corruption and Reform, 1992 (7: 2), 111–124.
Gross, M., Ethics and Activism: The Theory and Practice of Political Morality (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
Haboush, J.K., “The Confucianization of Korean Society” in G. Rozman (ed.), The East Asian Region: Confucian Heritage and its Modern Adaptation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 111–126.
Hahm, P., The Korean Political Tradition and Law: Essays in Korean Law and Legal History (Seoul: Hollym Corporation, 1971).
Hamilton, G.G., W. Zeile and W.-J. Kim, “Network Structure of East Asian Economies,” in S.R. Clegg and G.S. Redding (eds.), Capitalism in Contrasting Cultures (Hawthorne, NY: De Gruyter, 1990).
Han, S., “South Korea: Politics in Transition”, in L. Diamond, J.J. Linz and S.M. Lipset (eds.), Democracy in Developing Countries: Asia (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1989).
Hart, D., “Class Formation and the Industrialisation of Culture: The Case of South Korea's Emerging Middle Class,” Korea Journal, 1993 (33: 2), 50–68.
Heidenheimer, A.J., M. Johnston and V. Le Vine (eds.), Political Corruption: A Handbook (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1989).
Henderson, G., “The Politics of Korea”, in J. Sullivan and R. Foss (eds.), Two Koreas – One Future? (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987).
Hoffman, D., “Culture, Self, and ‘uri': Anti-Americanism in Contemporary South Korea,” Journal of Northeast Asian Studies, 1993 (Summer), 3–20.
Huntington, S.P., “The Clash of Civilizations ?,” Foreign Affairs, 1993 (72:3), 22–50.
Huntington, S.P., The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993), pp. 22–50.
Inglehart, R., Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic and Political Change in Forty-Three Societies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997).
IPU Inter-Parliaments Union Women in Parliaments Website, available at http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm, 2005.
JaHyun, K.-H., “The Confucianization of Korean Society,” in G. Rozman (ed.), The East Asian Region: Confucian Heritage and its Modern Adaptation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991).
Janelli, R.L. and D.Y. Janelli, “The Mutual Constitution of Confucianism and Capitalism in South Korea,” in T. Brook and H.V. Luong (eds.), Culture and Economy: The Shaping of Capitalism in Eastern Asia (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997), pp. 107–123.
Janelli, R., Making Capitalism: The Social and Cultural Construction of a South Korean Conglomerate (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993).
Johnston, M., “The Search for Definitions: The Vitality of Politics and the Issue of Corruption,” International Social Science Journal, 1996 (149: September), 321–335.
Jonhston, M. and Y. Hao, “Layers of Decision: Linking Social Definitions of Corruption,” Journal of Democracy, 1995 (6: 4), 80–94.
Kendall, L., “Death and Taxes: A Korean Approach to Hell,” Transactions: Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch, 1985 (60), 1–13.
Kim, W.-C., Every Street is Paved with Gold (Singapore: Times Books International, 1992).
Klitgaard, R., Controlling Corruption (Berkeley: UCLA Press, 1988).
Ko, D., J. Kim Haboush and J.R. Piggott (eds.), Women and Confucian Cultures in Premodern China, Korea and Japan (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).
Koo, H., “The State, Minjung, and the Working Class in South Korea,” in H. Koo (ed.), State and Society in Contemporary Korea (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993).
Lee, K.-B., A New History of Korea [E.W. Wagner (Trans.) with E.J. Schultz (ed.)] (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984).
Legge, J., The Li Ki [Book of Changes], Vol. 2 (New York: Causeway Books, 1973).
Moskovitz, K., “Ownership and Management of Korean Firms,” in K.H. Chung and H.C. Lee (eds.), Korean Managerial Dynamics (New York: Praeger, 1989).
Palais, J.B., Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyongwon and the Late Choson Dynasty (Seattle: University of Washington, 1996).
Palais, J.B., Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975).
Papanek, G., “The New Asian Capitalism: An Economic Portrait,” in P.L. Berger and H.-H.M. Hsiao (eds.), In Search of an East Asian Development Model (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1987), pp. 27–80.
Park, B.J., “Patriarchy in Korean Society: Substance and Appearance of Power,” Korea Journal, 2001 (41: 4), Seoul, pp. 48–73.
Park, B.-S., “Political Corruption in South Korea: Concentrating on the Dynamics of Party Politics” Asian Perspective, Vol. 19, (Spring-Summer, 1995) No. 1.
Park, C.-H., Our Nation's Path: Ideology of Social Reconstruction (Seoul: Hollym Corporation, 1970).
Parsons, T., The Structure of Social Action: A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers (New York: Free, 1949).
Pepinsky, H., “Corruption, Bribery and Patriarchy in Tanzania,” Crime, Law and Social Change, 1992 (17: 1), 25–51.
Philp, M., “Defining Political Corruption,” Political Studies (Special Issue on Political Corruption), 1997 (45), 436–463.
Putnam, R.D. with R. Leonardi and R.Y. Nanetti, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993).
Pye, L.H., Asian Power and Politics: The Cultural Dimension of Authority (Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1985).
Rashid, S. (ed.), The Clash of Civilizations? Asian Responses (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
Robison, M., “Perceptions of Confucianism in Twentieth Century Korea,” in G. Rozman (ed.), The East Asian Region: Confucian Heritage and its Modern Adaptation (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 204–225.
Robinson, R. (ed.), Pathways to Asia: The Politics of Engagement (London: Routledge, 1994).
Steers, R., The Chaebol: Korea's New Industrial Might (Grand Rapids, MI: Harper and Row, 1989).
Tu, W.-M., Way Learning, and Politics: Essays on the Confucian Intellectual (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989).
Walby, S., Theorising Patriarchy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990).
Williams, R., Marxism and Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977).
Woo-Cummings, M., “The Korean Bureaucratic State: Historical Legacies and Comparative Perspectives,” in J. Cotton (ed.), Politics and Policy in the New Korean State: From Roh Tae-woo to Kim Young-sam (New York: St Martin's, 1995), pp. 141–169.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dalton, B.M. Corruption in cultural context: Contradictions within the Korean tradition. Crime Law Soc Change 43, 237–262 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-005-1902-9
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-005-1902-9