지식인의 정치참여에 관한 연구: 대학교수를 중심으로

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the political participation of the professors in Korean politics from the era of authoritarian regimes to that of democratic governments. Under authoritarian regimes, professors tended to support those regimes legally or to advise a strategy for economic development. As a result, their role used to be very passive and subject to critiques of the ‘government-patronized professor.’ Democratization process in Korea led to a fundamental change in terms of political participation of professors. Experiencing an economic crisis, the role of intellectuals including professors and journalists was reduced to a pragmatic and functional dimension. A movement of ‘new intellectuals’ initiated by Kim Dae-jung government seemed to ask for a drastic change in the role of intellectuals in domestic politics. Some professors who attempted to join in presidential campaign with a strategy of ‘all or nothing’ and to ask for guaranteed political positions began to be called ‘polifessor(politics+professor).’ Consequently political participation of professors in democratic process came to be criticized because of lack of capability to suggest policy alternatives or remedy the defects of democratizing politics such as political polarization etc., and resulting to a deterioration of ideological confrontation.