ABSTRACT
The sociocultural background of South Korea is presented to give a basic understanding of the quintessence of South Korean state administration. “Flat state” indicates the weak penetration power of the government arising from a perennial trust deficit of the government and very wide scope of government intervention and influence. “Dual state” represents a twofold structure consisting of the family state, from which conceptual frame they see the state as the extension of the traditional concept of family and contract state, which sees the state as an outcome of contract among free and egoistic individuals. Switching state is understood here as a state flipping between either a coupling or decoupling relation between the traditional concept of family and the modern concept of family or between traditional familism and modern individualism, which are driven by the wartime culture resulting from the history of South Korea, which has been frequently invaded by surrounding superpowers
