ABSTRACT
The interwoven yet conflicting factors that influence concepts of governance in contemporary Korea illustrate the eclectic nature of political and social life. Although the military system, by its nature, obviously reinforces the concept of hierarchy and pervasively exploits it in its internal operations, both military regimes have either consciously or unconsciously attempted to eliminate the traditional class structure by increasing social mobility. The effectiveness of the Korean bureaucratic machine, which has been a remarkable performer in the context of economic development in transmitting instructions for nationwide compliance, may be attributed to some unknown degree to traditional concepts of hierarchy, as well as to a modern military command system and contemporary concepts of public administration. The orthodoxy of the Korean court produced a rigidity that made Korea more Confucian than its mentor, China. In the Korean political context, the term "loyal opposition becomes an oxymoron, because if the opposition is opposed to what authority stipulates, it by nature cannot be loyal.
