Institutionalizing Social Movements: The Dual Strategy of the Korean Women's Movement

Abstract

Since the 1990s, scholars have paid attention to the role of social movements traversing the official terrain of politics by blending a “contention” strategy with an “engagement” strategy. The literature often highlights the contribution of institutionalized social movements to policymaking and sociopolitical change, but rarely addresses why and how specific social movement organizations gain routine access to formal politics. Using the Korean women's movement as a case study, I analyze the conditions for movement institutionalization. As I perceive it as the consequence both of social movements' decision to participate in government and of the state's desire to integrate such movements into its decision-making process, movement institutionalization appears when the three factors are combined: (1) pressure from international organizations, (2) democratizing political structures, and (3) cognitive shifts by movement activists toward the role of the state.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research was supported by a Korea University Grant.

NOTES

Notes

¹ Some of the theoretical discussion in this section and the next elaborates on my previous work (Suh 2006).

² According to Giugni and Passy (1998), social movements institutionalize gradually—they join the political power structure in three stages: first, through consultation with the state or parties, which allows them to disseminate information and opinions as well as policy recommendations; second, through integration, which gives movements some responsibility for policy implementation; and third, through delegation, which empowers movements with a degree of responsibility in policymaking and policy implementation. See also Meyer (2007).

³ In particular, developing countries in democratic transition and consolidation present a political climate in which social movements with adequate organizational identity and autonomy can maintain their independence even as institutionalized participants; their continued fight against the vestiges of authoritarianism often makes them coequal with opposition parties or reform-minded political elites with whom they can form alliances (Dryzek 1996; Sandoval 1998).

⁴ For instance, if environmental movements stress the ravages of environmental destruction and the public benefits of prevention without implicating the political power elites, they and their concerns are more likely to be welcomed in decision making—become institutionalized—than had they presented those challenges as an indictment of the standing political system (Dryzek 1996).

⁵ Following Korean custom, the surname precedes the first name.

⁶ The June Democratization Uprising in 1987 that lasted three weeks nationwide and mobilized several million civilians brought authoritarian rule to an end. In the aftermath, the Great Worker Struggle that began in July and continued until September affected the whole nation with its radical and militant labor strikes. During the period, unprecedented 3,500 labor conflicts occurred and 1,060 new trade unions organized. Labor militancy continued from 1986 to 1989, as the number of trade unions doubled and the number of union members tripled (Suh 2009).