This book is a collection of essays written by Korean political theorists addressing the study of contemporary Korean political thought on the premise that such study should be carried out with a post-Eurocentric approach. The negative effects brought about by the domination of Western-centrism are pervasive in academic disciplines as well as in everyday life of South Korea. This book outlines three strategic approaches to combating Western-centrism: (1) theorizing contemporary Korean politics from a Korean perspective, (2) the Koreanization of Western political thought, and (3) modernizing traditional East Asian political thought. These essays examine and explore the validity of the three strategic approaches with the objective of coping with Western-centrism in Korean political theory. These contributing authors share a concern about Western-centrism, but approach it from different directions and at different layers.

Kang Jung In is professor in the Department of Political Science at Sogang University.

Part 1Theorizing Contemporary Korean Politics
1.The Ideological Terrain of Contemporary Korean Politics: From the Perspective of the Dialectic of Non-simultaneity
Kang Jung In

2.How the National Division and the Korean War Affected South Korean Politics: The Notions of Liberty, Democracy, and Welfare
Kim Dong-Choon

3.Liberalism and Modern State-Building in South Korea
Moon Jiyoung

4. The Politics and Political Science of the Clash of Civilizations: A Preliminary Study of the Intellectual Identity of Korean
Political Science
Yang Seung-Tae

5.Dongnipsinmun and Republican Democracy in Late Nineteenth-Century Korea
Lee Dongsoo
Part 2Koreanization of Western Political Thought
6Redefining Citizenship in the Multicultural Society: A Korean Case
Kim Nam-Kook

7.Civil Patriotism and Liberal Collectivism in South Korea: A Sentimentalist Approach
Kim Sungmoon

8.Western Feminism and Korean Feminism
Kim Hee-Kang

9. A Study on the Acceptance of Rousseaus Thought and Current Research in Korea
Kim Yong-Min

10. Rawls in Korea
Jang Dong-Jin

Part 3Modernizing Traditional East Asian
Political Thought
11. The Concept of the Public in Traditional Korea and Its Modern Variation
Lee Seung-Hwan

12.A Constitutionalist Interpretation of Confucian Politics in the Early Joseon Dynasty
Kim Bi-Hwan

13.The Confucian Tradition and Democracy in Korean Political Thought: The Distance betweenMínbn () andMínzh()
Kim Seog Gun

14. Liberalist Human Rights and the Confucian Ethics of Human Relationships
Lee Sang-ik