ABSTRACT
South Korean society has a reserve force system that imposes more time and money on the socially disadvantaged (notably through lack of employment and higher education). The more education one receives, the more likely to be exempted from reserve force training and the less likely to bear the economic burden of participating in reserve force training. Despite this unfair treatment, reservists have not raised collective voices calling for fair treatment. Based on a survey of 800 Korean civilians, this study demonstrates that there is an insulting discourse that demeans conscripted citizens as incompetent adults in South Korea. Adherence to such discourse makes civilians serving reserve duty draw a self-portrait as second-rate soldiers, preventing them from calling for fair treatment. Results from multiple regression analysis at the individual level confirmed that ideological disposition – higher militarism, higher Confucian patriarchy and lower human rights sensitivity – is essential to understand the cultural practice of demeaning citizens conscripted for reserve service as second-rate soldiers.
