21세기 한국사회 변동전망과 사회통합의 방향

The Korean pattern of rush-to modernization has produced a variety of adverse effects and by-products. In this historical context, this paper draws attention to the task of social integration by distinguishing between passive and active approaches. While the passive one aims at maintaining social stability through management of such unintentional by-products, the active approach attempts to target and reform the very mechanism of system operation. This paper also examines how value cleavages and conflicts of interest affect social integration and disintegration. The key to the empirical analysis of this paper is to demonstrate the extent of seriousness of various social conflicts exemplified by the socio-economic conflict, such as the gap between the rich and the poor, the political conflict, such as the head-on confrontation between the ruling bloc and the opposition party, and the ideological conflict, such as the opposition between the progressive and the conservative. Additionally, an attempt was made to formulate a communication index to test the extent to which the political system can rationally manage social conflicts. However, the results show that the ability of conflict management based on consensus or compromise is strikingly low, making it difficult to challenge the reproductive mechanism of social inequality due to the entrenched power structure reinforcing status quo. At the same time, this paper examines the extent of citizens' realization of their basic rights as a framework of social integration. The result shows that the citizens' response to their rights as practically experienced has significantly declined during the five years of the Lee Myoung-bak government in Korea since 2007. This may allow us to anticipate that in Korea's future, the by-products of rush-to modernization that threaten social inclusion, such as socio-economic polarization, will likely be further aggravated than restrained.