b. ㉡ Canonical Process of Political Development

㉡ Canonical Process of Political Development

To understand the relationship between political situations and available capacity in detail, you must first understand how political situations change specifically over time.

The political situation() can also be seen as changing according to the human survival threats, and in this regard, the concept of the three threats to survival^[Ch.1.2] can be helpful. Accordingly, let me assume that social conditions() consist of three components: security condition(SM), economic prosperity (SE), and spiritual culture(SI) that prevent the threats of violence, poverty, and chaos, respectively. For example, the threat of a wild animal corresponds to poor security, hunger corresponds to a lack of prosperity, and a loss of direction corresponds to a loss of spiritual culture.

Here, the security condition(SM) refers to the quantity and quality of personnel and means that can prevent and arrest people who attempt assault and destruction. Specifically, it can be considered based on the number of police officers per unit area. Economic prosperity(SE) refers to the quantity of all material goods, including food, clothing, housing, as well as necessary vehicles or bridges. Specifically, it can be considered based on the quantity of food, clothing, and housing. Spiritual culture(SI) refers to the conditions that allow and assist people to self- realize, including religion, ideology, arts, and various cultural activities.

Assuming a point in time when all living conditions within a political organization are severely disrupted due to foreign invasion, civil war, or long- term violent revolution, denoted as origin(O), let me consider the assumption that political conditions change over time(t). Then, one can conceive the 'canonical process of political development' as follows:

 

         [Ch.3.402] (Canonical Process of Political Development) If politics develops normally, the political order within the state changes in the order of ⓐ improvement of Security condition, ⓑ increase in economic prosperity, and ⓒ expansion of spiritual culture.

 

The following is a detailed explanation of each of the three stages in the canonical process of political development.

         ㉠ Firstly, the security condition(SM) improves over time, meaning that members of political organizations become increasingly safe from threats such as looting, destruction, and other forms of crime. While the security condition improves rapidly at first, the rate of improvement decreases over time.

         ㉡ Secondly, economic prosperity(SE) increases steadily over time, with a particular focus on the abundance of economic goods centered around the consciousness of the people. Economic prosperity grows at a constant rate in response to changes over time.

          ㉢ Thirdly, spiritual culture(SI) expands dramatically over time, with production of diverse ideologies and beliefs becoming much easier after an initial period of slow growth.

 

To more intuitively describe the canonical process of political development, it is assumed that three indicators can be quantified, and changes in each indicator over time can be represented graphically. When the canonical process of political development is plotted on a graph, it appears as follows.


[Diag.3.D.4] Canonical Process of Political Development

The security condition initially improves rapidly but eventually reaches a plateau. The reason for the rapid improvement in the beginning is due to the fact that personal safety is the most urgent need for survival according to the order of interaction of Samjae capacities^[Ch.3.105]. The reason for reaching a plateau later is that people no longer desire further improvement once a certain level of security has been achieved. In the current situation in South Korea in 2017, where a high school girl can walk alone on the streets at 2 AM without feeling much danger, there may not be many people who desire more police presence.

Economic prosperity increases gradually. The reason for this is that people always demand more economic abundance, while the economic goods that can be produced in a certain production facility are constant. Even the rich would want more grain and cloth in their warehouses, but the amount of grain and cloth that can be obtained from a fixed area of farmland and sericulture is always limited.

People desire spiritual culture to increase infinitely because everyone desires infinite self- realization. It can be assumed that spiritual culture increases geometrically because self-realization conditions can be increased by utilizing existing spiritual culture. People who have little exposure to culture, such as religion, ideology, and art, have less spiritual culture. In such situations, self-realization is not well achieved and the demand for self-realization is low. However, as spiritual culture increases, the demand for self-realization also increases proportionally. This kind of self-realization, which is mainly conceptual, is less restricted by spatio-temporal constraints and can easily increase. As shown in religion and ideology, concepts create concepts and increase people's cultural achievement potential.

On the other hand, with regard to the available political capacity in the canonical process of political development, it can be explained as follows by referring to [Ch.3.107]. (It will be easier to understand with reference to [Diag.3.A.6] above.)

 

         [Ch.3.403] (Available Political Capacity) The worse security and public order(Security Condition) is the more important and effective an armed capacity is for political activity; and the more economically poor a society is, the more important and effective its economic capacity, and the more deficient it is in spiritual culture, the more important and effective its ideological capacity is for political activity.

 

In the case of Sierra Leone, the security condition is so unstable that in September 1993, eight armed bandits with AK47 rifles broke into an American's home in the capital, Freetown, tied him up, and stole all his valuables. The ruler of Sierra Leone at the time was a 27-year-old army captain named Valentine Strasser, who was himself armed with a gun. Moreover, in all African countries that gained independence within the past five years, the size of the armed forces has increased and their political influence has expanded. The military acted as a major interest group, and no one could interfere with the political privileges of military commanders. This is an example of how armed capacity can create a regime when the security condition is poor.

 

Meanwhile, in the first government under Chatichai Choonhavan in Thailand in 1988, corporations accounted for a larger proportion of cabinet members (73.3%) than bureaucrats (13.3%), reflecting Thailand's economic development. Between 1958 and 1972, Thailand's economic growth rate averaged 7.5% annually, and the Sarit regime in 1979 pursued a developmental dictatorship policy similar to that of South Korea, bringing Thailand's economy from a stage of underdevelopment to development. This is an example of how economic capacity can create power when the economy is poor. Such phenomena are also seen at the micro-level and in illegal domains. As security stabilizes and the size of the economy grows, organizational violence in South Korea has shifted from being primarily predatory in the vicinity of entertainment and construction industries to being mostly business-oriented as of 2001.

 

If economic prosperity is achieved, ideological capacity becomes even more important in generating power. An example can be seen in 12th century England. At the time, as England prospered, urban citizens, guild craftsmen, university students, and monastery monks organized themselves into collective bodies to assert their rights, and thereby emerged as new political actors.