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2003

CHANG, Yongsung: has moved from University of Pennsylvania to Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

KIM, Jinill: has moved from University of Verginia to Federal Reserve Board, Washington, D.C.

KIM,Suk Hi: has recently published a book, North Korea at a Crossroads, Jefferson, NC, McFarland & Company, July 2003. This book is availale through amazon.com and his website is www.mich.com/~kimsuk. He also received the Distinguished Faculty Award 2003 along with a check for $2,500 from his school. The individual chosen for this prestigious award is honored for faculty colleagues as the most outstanding faculty member that year within the University of Detroit Mercy. This year professor Kim was honored by about 170 colleagues at the 2003 faculty recognition awards dinner held at the University of Detroit Mercy on October 17, 2003.

LEE, Chung H.: has "recently edited and published with Routledge of London. The title of the book is "Financial Liberalization and the Economic Crisis in Asia." I, of course, believe it is a good book that every economist should buy and read!"

YOON, Yong Joon: will give a talk at the bank of Korea, Washington office, on "Majority rules and constitutional restrictions", on April 26. He has also recently published an article on freedom of press in Korea:

Civil Society and Free Media*
Civil society is based on non-political relationships in a political community. Free individuals and reciprocal dealing are characteristic of civil society, a progress from barbarism to civilization. Institutions of economic freedom and freedom to expression are the social capital that maintain civil society. Historically, civil societies had emerged due to market expansion, the increase in the division and specialization of labor and the diffusion of commercial transactions. The importance of free media in civil society becomes clear when we imagine the opposite. A society without freedom of expression, of speech, and to know, is despotism and only propaganda will prevail. Without freedom of expression, for an individual or a society, change and growth would not be possible. In despotism, people will live in isolation and general indifference. From this perspective, I want to discuss the current debate on the issue of free press and government regulation of media in Korea. Since the economic logic is at the heart of civil society, let me compare the market for goods and the market for ideas. If we believe in the regulation of goods market, then the market for ideas also need regulation. But the role of government regulation should be limited to providing and enforcing property rights and contracts, including labor contracts. Fair Trade Commission makes an economic argument for regulating the press market. I do not think the argument is valid. Controversy in the press market, unlike the competition in goods market, tends to make the market bigger. Technically, there is no entry barrier in the press market. With a printing press, a pen, and mobile phone you can start a newspaper. But, the media is different in an essential way. The media provides information and persuasion. The media has no coercive power, yet can be very influential in public opinions. Newspapers appealed to the patriotism of American people that led to the Spanish-American War. Washington Post destroyed Nixon by Watergate scandal. Thus, we can understand why the government feels uneasy about the press, and not without basis. However, correcting the press is an impossible mission. By controlling the press contents, the government attempts to control the readers. This ultimately means that the government distrusts the judgment and good sense of the readers of the press, such as the Chosun daily. It is possible that newspaper can mislead readers and influence in government domain. But readers of newspaper are more analytical than the watchers of TV broadcasting and internets. If we do not trust the judgment of ordinary citizen, in fact, democracy is not possible. If we doubt the capacity of voters, where is the legitimacy of the elected officials in the government? The question indeed is not new. This is the question debated by American founding fathers, James Madison, in particular. American constitutionalism became possible by the trust in ordinary man's ability to make decisions on public issues. This is also the question raised by Wei Yuan and Fen Guifen in the 19th century Ching China, when they proposed for a constitutional monarchy. The mainstream of Confucian intellectual tradition did not accept the Madison's logic. Democracy can be vulnerable. But this is the best system we know so far. The situation can be improved by introducing more competition. Let TV broadcasting compete against newspapers. If government gives up shares of TV stations and content control, TV broadcasting could better compete against the privately run newspapers.
Yong J. Yoon (Center for Study of Public Choice, George Mason University, Fairfax, Va, USA, yyoon@gmu.edu)
*appeared in Executive Essay series by Center for Free Enterprise, Seoul, Korea, in June 2003.