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Joseph Yi

Hanyang University, Political Science and Diplomacy, Faculty Member

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Joseph Yi is associate professor of political science at Hanyang University. Yi received a B.A. at U.C. Berkeley, and a Ph.D. (political science) at the University of Chicago. Yi researches on diversity, civil society, and liberal democracy, especially in North America and East Asia. Since 2013, Yi published ten articles in SSCI-indexed journals. In 2016, Yi was selected as one of the top 23 “Excellent Researchers” at Hanyang University--one of only two professors from the Social Sciences. Please contact Joseph Yi for any question or comment. He would love to hear from you!

Email: [email protected]
Kakao: joyi

Joseph Eugene Yi(이유진)는 한양대 정치외교학과 부교수로 재직중이다.
UC Berkeley에서 학사학위를 취득하고, University of Chicago에서 정치학 박사학위를 취득했다.
이 교수님은 다양성, 시민사회 그리고 북미와 동아시아의 자유 민주주의에관한 활발한 연구활동을 하고 있다. 2013년 이후로 SSCI에 10개의 논문이 게재 되었다. 2016년에 이 교수님은 한양대학교에서 우수 연구자 23인 중 한명으로 선정되었고, 그중에 사회과학대학에서는 두명 중에 한명이다. 문의 사항은 이교수직접 연락주시기 바랍니다!

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Emile Kok-Kheng Yeoh

Strategic Studies Amnesty International NL

Thierry Kellner

Université libre de Bruxelles

Sophie Wintgens

Université libre de Bruxelles

Daniel F . Vukovich ( 胡德 )

The University of Hong Kong

Duke University

Elizabeth Perry

Lancaster University

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Papers by Joseph Yi

Hong Kong and China scholars and students need to be heard

Asia Nikkei, 2023

Foreign universities and governments have to protect free expression of views

South Koreans should be free to be 'wrong' about history

Asia Nikkei, 2023

South Koreans should be free to be 'wrong' about history

Student Research Participation in South Korea

PS: Political Science & Politics, 2023

In South Korea, government regulations constrain the resources of higher (tertiary) education, es... more In South Korea, government regulations constrain the resources of higher (tertiary) education, especially non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) departments. Resource constraints, in turn, reinforce a culturally Confucian hierarchy that restricts the participation of lower-rank members (e.g., high school and undergraduate students). This more-regulated, formal-education sector does not reflect the increasingly diverse cultural preferences (e.g., utilitarian and expressive) of Korean students. Many students, acting as consumers, exit to alternative sectors, including formal-educational institutions abroad and informal, private supplemental education at home, which offer more student research opportunities. This article develops and illustrates three theoretical propositions with relevant literature and secondary data as well as participant observations and interviews with Korea-based students. Arguably, our propositions and findings are relevant to other countries with gaps between formal education and consumer preferences and with consumer exit options.

"Low-Road" Liberalism: Censoring Public Discourses on Communist North Korea and Imperial Japan

by Joseph Yi and Joe Phillips

SOCIETY, 2023

An influential strain of thought supports restrictions on individual rights to achieve certain li... more An influential strain of thought supports restrictions on individual rights to achieve certain liberal values. The temporary use of illiberal means for ostensibly liberal ends (Doyle's "low-road" liberalism) is embraced by both the political right and left to serve their partisan policy goals. Our essay analyzes low-road policies and practices, specifically speech restrictions, and how they are countered. We compare two transnational campaigns, mainly based in democratic South Korea, which criticize either the North Korean and Japanese governments for their current or past human rights violations. The "anti-North" campaign is supported by South Korea's political right and the "anti-Japan" campaign by the left. Each has exercised bureaucratic-institutional power to stigmatize target groups and punish dissenting speech. Each campaign is countered by a mix of low-road, partisan opponents, who would similarly exercise illiberal power to achieve their respective goals, and high-road, procedural liberals, who secularly criticize censorship and endorse open, rational debate to correct flawed information, advance shared knowledge, and generate bipartisan, multilateral consensus.

(Bounded) Exit, voice, and politics: pandemic education in US and South Korea

Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 2022

This article theorizes how crises and markets shape the responses of consumers and producer organ... more This article theorizes how crises and markets shape the responses of consumers and producer organizations. We advance four propositions: 1) if a crisis requires major revisions in operational rules, less-exit sensitive (i.e., monopoly-like) organizations shall revise to aggregate preferences of organized producers; and more-exit sensitive (market-oriented) organizations, to the preferences of individual consumers; 2) if a sustained crisis widens the gap between incumbent organizations and consumer preferences, more consumers shall exit to alternative organizations; 3) if the incumbent organization controls valued resources, consumers shall select more-bounded exit options, which retain formal-legal ties with the incumbent; and 4) compared to less-bounded exit, more-bounded exit options shall enhance consumers' collective voice about incumbent organizations. We inductively derive our theory from an exploratory analysis of educational organizations in US and South Korea during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Many consumers were dissatisfied with regular-public schools and considered various exit alternatives, including non-regular schools (e.g., private, charter [US], homeschooling [US], special-purpose [Korea]) and private supplemental education. Compared to less-bounded exit (e.g., private schools), more-bounded exit options (e.g., charter, PSE) grew more, and contributed more to consumer voice about regular-public schools, during the pandemic.

Bounded Exit and Voice in North Korea

International Migration, 2022

The Hirschman-inspired literature on exit and voice often assume that citizens of a highly restri... more The Hirschman-inspired literature on exit and voice often assume that citizens of a highly restrictive, autocratic regime exercise few options to exit the country ('border crossing') or to voice their discontent. This assumption neglects a sustained economic crisis, which exposes the limitations of traditional, state-run organizations and increases public demand for border crossings. To survive such a crisis, we theorize that more-authoritarian (autocratic) regimes encourage bounded exit (crossing) options that tie citizens legally and financially to the incumbent country; and that bounded exit options enhance citizen voices in the autocratic regime and help alter incumbent rules. We formulate our theory both deductively and inductively: deductively from the literatures on exit and voice, crises (critical junctures), historical institutionalism, and communist autocracies; and inductively from published data related to North Korea. We develop and assess propositions with secondary analysis of governmental statistics and the literature on North Korea's famine (1994-98), border crossings and marketization. Data limitations notwithstanding, this paper outlines a theoretically novel pathway linking crisis, exit, voice, rules changes and autocratic regimes.

South Korean democracy would benefit from cooperation with Japan: Asian democracies need an EU-style multilateral union

Asia Nikkei, 2022

Asian democracies need an EU-style, multilateral union to confidently promote liberty in Asia, an... more Asian democracies need an EU-style, multilateral union to confidently promote liberty in Asia, and around the world. But the formation of this "Asian Union" requires, foremost, cooperation between South Korea and Japan.
In the absence of legal changes in how the public talk and learn about their neighbors, South Koreans remain isolated, which constrains their ability to advocate on behalf of liberty.
Reducing legal restrictions on public discourse and academic inquiry would empower all South Koreans to develop more nuanced, informed views and to support corresponding policies.

Asian-American Religiosity and Politics

Journal of Political Science Education, 2022

This essay discusses the emerging literature on APA religiosity and politics, with a focus on the... more This essay discusses the emerging literature on APA religiosity and politics, with a focus on theologically conservative Christians. 1 APAs are both highly religiously diverse, and politically divided between those who identify more as conservative Christians and those who do less. More-educated, conservative Christian APAs experience cross-pressures from more-educated, social progressives (predominantly Democrats) and from less-educated, conservative Christians (predominantly Republicans). APA involvement in transnational religious networks sometimes reinforces, and sometimes bridges, the "culture war" cleavages. The essay closes with suggestions on how political science professors can teach about, and to, religiously diverse Asian-Americans, including potential discussion topics and assignments.

Parable of Talents: How North Korea-related, Faith-Based Workers respond to Enhanced Sanctions and a Global Pandemic

Journal of Korean Religions, 2022

How did American members of North Korea-related, faith-based organizations (FBOs)-''US humanitari... more How did American members of North Korea-related, faith-based organizations (FBOs)-''US humanitarian evangelicals''-respond to the governmental restrictions linked to enhanced sanctions and a global pandemic? More-committed members shifted from direct person-to-person engagement inside North Korea to indirect activities outside, including political advocacy in US and language training in South Korea. They articulated narratives that competed with those of human-rights evangelicals supporting increasing sanctions and of fellow humanitarian evangelicals discouraged from North Korea. They cast young North Koreans as victims of sanctions and vanguards of unification, and the current, restrictive period as a ''parable of talents'' moment to faithfully prepare for God's special plan for Korea. Our findings derive from a nearly four-year (2018-2021) study of US humanitarian evangelicals, based in South Korea and US. This article draws on and contributes to the literature on non-governmental organizations aiding North Korea, and to the larger literature on cultures, frames, and narratives.

Prioritizing Free Speech or the Dignity of Victims: Competing Approaches to Public Discourse in Japan and South Korea

SOCIETY, 2021

Japan's volatile ties with democratic South Korea, and its relatively stable relations with autoc... more Japan's volatile ties with democratic South Korea, and its relatively stable relations with autocratic China, seem to contradict theories of international cooperation, theories which posit cooperation between democracies, and non-cooperation between democracies and autocracies. Tokyo and Seoul exemplify a third type of relationship, that between different types of democracies. Given that even the most liberal societies demonstrate some gaps in the degree to which they uphold individual liberties, there is a potential for friction between these regimes, especially when differing collective memories of the same events trigger different features of their respective political cultures. With respect to human rights violations during the Japanese colonial era, the two democracies sharply diverge: Seoul espouses a victim-centered approach that prioritizes the dignity of victims over free speech, and Tokyo a free-speech approach that tolerates pluralist discourses. Unless one yields to the preferred mode of the other, each will criticize the other as illiberal, even though they are both liberal compared to China.

Christian Case for Engaging North Korea

Pacific Affairs

Manufacturing Contempt: State-Linked Populism in South Korea

Society

Queer Communities and Activism in South Korea: Periphery-Center Currents

Journal of Homosexuality

Research into South Korea's LGBT+ communities is growing but still very limited, especially regar... more Research into South Korea's LGBT+ communities is growing but still very limited, especially regarding communities in Busan and other urban areas outside the capital city, Seoul. We collected and analyzed responses from young LGBT+ who resided in the periphery and center and who described the two communities, their activist tactics, the connections/separations between them, and periphery-center characteristics of dialogue with opponents and participation in Korea's conservative, evangelical Christian churches. We reveal attitudinal and behavioral differences between Seoul and Busan (and other outlying areas), and we suggest that the differences reflect, in part, physical, social, and psychological distances between LGBT+ residing in the periphery and center. In time, outlying areas may converge with the center, imitating, though perhaps incompletely, Seoul's strong identity activism and more integrated community, or the periphery may pursue an independent, local identity.

Charlottesville Paradox: The ‘Liberalizing’ Alt-Right, ‘Authoritarian’ Left, and Politics of Dialogue

Society

Religions and Politics of Asian Pacific Americans

Society

Korean media discourse on international education

Globalisation, Societies and Education

Proposition 8 and the Limits of Politics among Asian Ethnic Churches

Proposition 8 and the Limits of Partisan Politics among Asian Christians

God, Yoga, and Karate

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2015

Debating Multicultural Korea: Media Discourse on Migrants and Minorities in South Korea

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Hong Kong and China scholars and students need to be heard

Asia Nikkei, 2023

Foreign universities and governments have to protect free expression of views

South Koreans should be free to be 'wrong' about history

Asia Nikkei, 2023

South Koreans should be free to be 'wrong' about history

Student Research Participation in South Korea

PS: Political Science & Politics, 2023

In South Korea, government regulations constrain the resources of higher (tertiary) education, es... more In South Korea, government regulations constrain the resources of higher (tertiary) education, especially non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) departments. Resource constraints, in turn, reinforce a culturally Confucian hierarchy that restricts the participation of lower-rank members (e.g., high school and undergraduate students). This more-regulated, formal-education sector does not reflect the increasingly diverse cultural preferences (e.g., utilitarian and expressive) of Korean students. Many students, acting as consumers, exit to alternative sectors, including formal-educational institutions abroad and informal, private supplemental education at home, which offer more student research opportunities. This article develops and illustrates three theoretical propositions with relevant literature and secondary data as well as participant observations and interviews with Korea-based students. Arguably, our propositions and findings are relevant to other countries with gaps between formal education and consumer preferences and with consumer exit options.

"Low-Road" Liberalism: Censoring Public Discourses on Communist North Korea and Imperial Japan

by Joseph Yi and Joe Phillips

SOCIETY, 2023

An influential strain of thought supports restrictions on individual rights to achieve certain li... more An influential strain of thought supports restrictions on individual rights to achieve certain liberal values. The temporary use of illiberal means for ostensibly liberal ends (Doyle's "low-road" liberalism) is embraced by both the political right and left to serve their partisan policy goals. Our essay analyzes low-road policies and practices, specifically speech restrictions, and how they are countered. We compare two transnational campaigns, mainly based in democratic South Korea, which criticize either the North Korean and Japanese governments for their current or past human rights violations. The "anti-North" campaign is supported by South Korea's political right and the "anti-Japan" campaign by the left. Each has exercised bureaucratic-institutional power to stigmatize target groups and punish dissenting speech. Each campaign is countered by a mix of low-road, partisan opponents, who would similarly exercise illiberal power to achieve their respective goals, and high-road, procedural liberals, who secularly criticize censorship and endorse open, rational debate to correct flawed information, advance shared knowledge, and generate bipartisan, multilateral consensus.

(Bounded) Exit, voice, and politics: pandemic education in US and South Korea

Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 2022

This article theorizes how crises and markets shape the responses of consumers and producer organ... more This article theorizes how crises and markets shape the responses of consumers and producer organizations. We advance four propositions: 1) if a crisis requires major revisions in operational rules, less-exit sensitive (i.e., monopoly-like) organizations shall revise to aggregate preferences of organized producers; and more-exit sensitive (market-oriented) organizations, to the preferences of individual consumers; 2) if a sustained crisis widens the gap between incumbent organizations and consumer preferences, more consumers shall exit to alternative organizations; 3) if the incumbent organization controls valued resources, consumers shall select more-bounded exit options, which retain formal-legal ties with the incumbent; and 4) compared to less-bounded exit, more-bounded exit options shall enhance consumers' collective voice about incumbent organizations. We inductively derive our theory from an exploratory analysis of educational organizations in US and South Korea during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Many consumers were dissatisfied with regular-public schools and considered various exit alternatives, including non-regular schools (e.g., private, charter [US], homeschooling [US], special-purpose [Korea]) and private supplemental education. Compared to less-bounded exit (e.g., private schools), more-bounded exit options (e.g., charter, PSE) grew more, and contributed more to consumer voice about regular-public schools, during the pandemic.

Bounded Exit and Voice in North Korea

International Migration, 2022

The Hirschman-inspired literature on exit and voice often assume that citizens of a highly restri... more The Hirschman-inspired literature on exit and voice often assume that citizens of a highly restrictive, autocratic regime exercise few options to exit the country ('border crossing') or to voice their discontent. This assumption neglects a sustained economic crisis, which exposes the limitations of traditional, state-run organizations and increases public demand for border crossings. To survive such a crisis, we theorize that more-authoritarian (autocratic) regimes encourage bounded exit (crossing) options that tie citizens legally and financially to the incumbent country; and that bounded exit options enhance citizen voices in the autocratic regime and help alter incumbent rules. We formulate our theory both deductively and inductively: deductively from the literatures on exit and voice, crises (critical junctures), historical institutionalism, and communist autocracies; and inductively from published data related to North Korea. We develop and assess propositions with secondary analysis of governmental statistics and the literature on North Korea's famine (1994-98), border crossings and marketization. Data limitations notwithstanding, this paper outlines a theoretically novel pathway linking crisis, exit, voice, rules changes and autocratic regimes.

South Korean democracy would benefit from cooperation with Japan: Asian democracies need an EU-style multilateral union

Asia Nikkei, 2022

Asian democracies need an EU-style, multilateral union to confidently promote liberty in Asia, an... more Asian democracies need an EU-style, multilateral union to confidently promote liberty in Asia, and around the world. But the formation of this "Asian Union" requires, foremost, cooperation between South Korea and Japan.
In the absence of legal changes in how the public talk and learn about their neighbors, South Koreans remain isolated, which constrains their ability to advocate on behalf of liberty.
Reducing legal restrictions on public discourse and academic inquiry would empower all South Koreans to develop more nuanced, informed views and to support corresponding policies.

Asian-American Religiosity and Politics

Journal of Political Science Education, 2022

This essay discusses the emerging literature on APA religiosity and politics, with a focus on the... more This essay discusses the emerging literature on APA religiosity and politics, with a focus on theologically conservative Christians. 1 APAs are both highly religiously diverse, and politically divided between those who identify more as conservative Christians and those who do less. More-educated, conservative Christian APAs experience cross-pressures from more-educated, social progressives (predominantly Democrats) and from less-educated, conservative Christians (predominantly Republicans). APA involvement in transnational religious networks sometimes reinforces, and sometimes bridges, the "culture war" cleavages. The essay closes with suggestions on how political science professors can teach about, and to, religiously diverse Asian-Americans, including potential discussion topics and assignments.

Parable of Talents: How North Korea-related, Faith-Based Workers respond to Enhanced Sanctions and a Global Pandemic

Journal of Korean Religions, 2022

How did American members of North Korea-related, faith-based organizations (FBOs)-''US humanitari... more How did American members of North Korea-related, faith-based organizations (FBOs)-''US humanitarian evangelicals''-respond to the governmental restrictions linked to enhanced sanctions and a global pandemic? More-committed members shifted from direct person-to-person engagement inside North Korea to indirect activities outside, including political advocacy in US and language training in South Korea. They articulated narratives that competed with those of human-rights evangelicals supporting increasing sanctions and of fellow humanitarian evangelicals discouraged from North Korea. They cast young North Koreans as victims of sanctions and vanguards of unification, and the current, restrictive period as a ''parable of talents'' moment to faithfully prepare for God's special plan for Korea. Our findings derive from a nearly four-year (2018-2021) study of US humanitarian evangelicals, based in South Korea and US. This article draws on and contributes to the literature on non-governmental organizations aiding North Korea, and to the larger literature on cultures, frames, and narratives.

Prioritizing Free Speech or the Dignity of Victims: Competing Approaches to Public Discourse in Japan and South Korea

SOCIETY, 2021

Japan's volatile ties with democratic South Korea, and its relatively stable relations with autoc... more Japan's volatile ties with democratic South Korea, and its relatively stable relations with autocratic China, seem to contradict theories of international cooperation, theories which posit cooperation between democracies, and non-cooperation between democracies and autocracies. Tokyo and Seoul exemplify a third type of relationship, that between different types of democracies. Given that even the most liberal societies demonstrate some gaps in the degree to which they uphold individual liberties, there is a potential for friction between these regimes, especially when differing collective memories of the same events trigger different features of their respective political cultures. With respect to human rights violations during the Japanese colonial era, the two democracies sharply diverge: Seoul espouses a victim-centered approach that prioritizes the dignity of victims over free speech, and Tokyo a free-speech approach that tolerates pluralist discourses. Unless one yields to the preferred mode of the other, each will criticize the other as illiberal, even though they are both liberal compared to China.

Christian Case for Engaging North Korea

Pacific Affairs

Manufacturing Contempt: State-Linked Populism in South Korea

Society

Queer Communities and Activism in South Korea: Periphery-Center Currents

Journal of Homosexuality

Research into South Korea's LGBT+ communities is growing but still very limited, especially regar... more Research into South Korea's LGBT+ communities is growing but still very limited, especially regarding communities in Busan and other urban areas outside the capital city, Seoul. We collected and analyzed responses from young LGBT+ who resided in the periphery and center and who described the two communities, their activist tactics, the connections/separations between them, and periphery-center characteristics of dialogue with opponents and participation in Korea's conservative, evangelical Christian churches. We reveal attitudinal and behavioral differences between Seoul and Busan (and other outlying areas), and we suggest that the differences reflect, in part, physical, social, and psychological distances between LGBT+ residing in the periphery and center. In time, outlying areas may converge with the center, imitating, though perhaps incompletely, Seoul's strong identity activism and more integrated community, or the periphery may pursue an independent, local identity.

Charlottesville Paradox: The ‘Liberalizing’ Alt-Right, ‘Authoritarian’ Left, and Politics of Dialogue

Society

Religions and Politics of Asian Pacific Americans

Society

Korean media discourse on international education

Globalisation, Societies and Education

Proposition 8 and the Limits of Politics among Asian Ethnic Churches

Proposition 8 and the Limits of Partisan Politics among Asian Christians

God, Yoga, and Karate

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2015

Debating Multicultural Korea: Media Discourse on Migrants and Minorities in South Korea

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Yi Research Statement

My research focuses on communication and cooperation among groups that differ along key cleavages... more My research focuses on communication and cooperation among groups that differ along key cleavages (e.g., ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexuality). What kinds of organizations sustain interaction across cleavages and foster key liberal-democratic virtues (e.g., tolerance, trust)? More broadly, what are the determinants of dialogic, democratic politics among different groups and nations? I address these questions using multiple methods (e.g., survey data, content analysis, case study, ethnography) and in a variety of settings (e.g., East Asia, North America). Since 2013, I have ten SSCI-indexed journal articles published or forthcoming.

Parable of Talents: How North Korea-related, Faith-Based Workers respond to Enhanced Sanctions and a Global Pandemic

How do faith-based workers respond to severe, governmental restrictions on their operations? Spec... more How do faith-based workers respond to severe, governmental restrictions on their operations? Specifically, how did American members of North Korea-oriented, faith-based organizations (FBOs)—"US humanitarian evangelicals”—respond to restrictions linked to 2017-18 enhanced sanctions and a 2020-21 global pandemic? FBO workers committed to North Korea articulated distinct narratives for external and internal audiences, i.e., outside and inside the network of humanitarian evangelicals. Externally, they contested “human-rights” evangelicals and other rights activists, who supported enhanced sanctions and who valorized defector-activists; instead, they publicly narrated North Korean children as victims of sanctions and as vanguards of future reunification. Internally, they contested fellow humanitarian evangelicals, who interpreted the sanctions and pandemic as God’s closing the doors on North Korea; instead, they framed the current period as a “parable of talents” moment to faithfully prepare for God’s special plan for Korea. Our findings derive from a three-year (2018-2020) study of US humanitarian evangelicals, based in South Korea and US. This article draws on and contributes to the literatures on non-governmental organizations aiding North Korea, and on cultures, narratives and frames, and dissonance.

Parable of Talents: How North Korea-related, Faith-Based Workers respond to Enhanced Sanctions and a Global Pandemic

How do faith-based workers respond to severe, governmental restrictions on their operations? Spec... more How do faith-based workers respond to severe, governmental restrictions on their operations? Specifically, how did American members of North Korea-oriented, faith-based organizations (FBOs)—"US humanitarian evangelicals”—respond to restrictions linked to 2017-18 enhanced sanctions and a 2020-21 global pandemic? FBO workers committed to North Korea articulated distinct narratives for external and internal audiences, i.e., outside and inside the network of humanitarian evangelicals. Externally, they contested “human-rights” evangelicals and other rights activists, who supported enhanced sanctions and who valorized defector-activists; instead, they publicly narrated North Korean children as victims of sanctions and as vanguards of future reunification. Internally, they contested fellow humanitarian evangelicals, who interpreted the sanctions and pandemic as God’s closing the doors on North Korea; instead, they framed the current period as a “parable of talents” moment to faithfully prepare for God’s special plan for Korea. Our findings derive from a three-year (2018-2020) study of US humanitarian evangelicals, based in South Korea and US. This article draws on and contributes to the literatures on non-governmental organizations aiding North Korea, and on cultures, narratives and frames, and dissonance.

Illiberal Means for Liberal Ends: Low-Road Challenge to Liberal Public Discourse and International Relations

An influential strain of liberal thought demonizes certain groups and viewpoints as enemies of li... more An influential strain of liberal thought demonizes certain groups and viewpoints as enemies of liberty, and supports restrictions on individual rights to further liberal ends. The use of illiberal and authoritarian means for ostensibly liberal ends, what Michael Doyle terms 'low road' liberalism, is embraced by self-described rights proponents in both the political right and left, and among key democratic states in Europe, North America and East Asia. Low-road ideology justifies, and habituates the public to, an ever-expanding set of illiberal practices that undermine open, rational public discourse. Our essay shall analyze low-road politics and practices in various contexts (especially in US and South Korea) and how they can be countered. We focus on two, transnational human rights campaigns: the mostly right-liberal (rightist), US-led campaign against North Korea, and the left-liberal, South Korean-led campaign against Japan.

WORKING PAPER*** [email protected] ****

Illiberal Means for Liberal Ends: Low-Road Challenge to Liberal Public Discourse and International Relations

An influential strain of liberal thought demonizes certain groups and viewpoints as enemies of li... more An influential strain of liberal thought demonizes certain groups and viewpoints as enemies of liberty, and supports restrictions on individual rights to further liberal ends. The use of illiberal and authoritarian means for ostensibly liberal ends, what Michael Doyle terms 'low road' liberalism, is embraced by self-described rights proponents in both the political right and left, and among key democratic states in Europe, North America and East Asia. Low-road ideology justifies, and habituates the public to, an ever-expanding set of illiberal practices that undermine open, rational public discourse. Our essay shall analyze low-road politics and practices in various contexts (especially in US and South Korea) and how they can be countered. We focus on two, transnational human rights campaigns: the mostly right-liberal (rightist), US-led campaign against North Korea, and the left-liberal, South Korean-led campaign against Japan.