Introduction

History records the ambiguity of political stance of white-collar workers and the middle class, oscillating erratically between conservative and progressive orientations. Many scholars have debated white-collar workers’ historically inconstant class location and political preferences. Discussion grew earnest in the early 1960s with the growth of “new social movements” in the West, which white-collar workers actively supported, and in the 1970s and 1980s among both Weberian and Neo-Marxist scholars posing the “class boundary” problem. Though white-collar labor is a relatively small segment of the overall population in society, its political power has, however, been pivotal in effecting social change at critical historical junctures as has been shown in Korea where white-collar workers’ political mobilization and fledgling unionism greatly impacted the rapidly changing course of political democratization, growing globalization, and economic restructuring.