문화정책의 ‘지연된 민주화’ - 문화부의 독립과 검열 폐지의 정치학을 중심으로 -

This paper critically examines the official narrative of cultural policy in South Korea. Specifically, it challenges the cliché that the independence of the Ministry of Culture, established by the Roh Tae-woo government in 1990, represents the institutionalization of the 1987 democratization movement in cultural policy. In reality, during this period, the most significant issues in the democratization of cultural policy were both the independence of the Ministry of Culture and the abolition of censorship. Therefore, this study investigates the process of democratizing cultural policies within a political context during the period from the establishment of the South Korean government to the 15th presidential election, which saw Kim Dae-jung elected. Since Kim Dae-jung’s four presidential campaigns provided a significant platform to democratize cultural policy and eliminate censorship as key national-level policy goals, this paper examines Kim Dae-jung’s presidential campaigns as a constituent of the cultural policy history.
As a result, this paper demonstrates that, first, the longing for a national cultural policy and the desire for democratization of cultural policy have been repeatedly expressed since the establishment of the government, and that these aspirations erupted once again with the democratization of 1987.
Second, as the institutionalization of democracy through the revival of the direct presidential system paradoxically led to the re-creation of a neo-military regime, the democratization of cultural policy was reduced and refracted through the administrative reorganization of the Ministry of Culture, while intensifying government censorship. This strategy, which was both selective and deceptive, resulted in a paradoxical situation where one longstanding goal of democratization (the independence of the Ministry of Culture) reserved and frustrated another democratization aspiration (the abolition of censorship).
Third, this ‘delay’ in the ‘democratization of cultural policy’ was resolved with the election of Kim Dae-jung as president in the 15th presidential election, who comprehensively pledged for the independence of the Ministry of Culture and the abolition of censorship. In this sense, the cliché of democratization of cultural policy starting with the independence of the Ministry of Culture (1990) should be reconsidered in light of the historical introduction of the arm’s length principle in Korean cultural policy through the 15th presidential election.