The Clash over Democracy between the United States and the Soviet Union in the Korean Liberation Period, 1946-1947

This study analyzes conflicts caused by the different perceptions held by the United States and the Soviet Union about the democratic subjects and the problem of selecting the representatives of the democratic subjects in the Korean Peninsula after World War II. American democracy was based on freedom, exceptionalism and moralism, whereas Soviet democracy was based on the dictatorship of the proletariat for the real working class. These two conceptions of democracy collided in the Korean Peninsula after World War II. During the First U.S.-U.S.S.R. Joint Commission, the heart of American democracy was conveyed as the freedom to express opinions. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, argued that true democracy should represent the workers and peasant. With respect to what kind of democratic government should be established in the Korean Peninsula, the United States tuned the concept of American democracy and prepared more concrete ideas for a national system and electoral methods based on American democracy. The Soviet Union envisioned election based on the People s Committee and the establishment of the People s Congress in the North. The United States and the Soviet Union did not agree on the democratic subjects and the form of democratic government in the Korean peninsula. Consequently, a Communist government of the democratic people was established in the North. In the South, a democratic government far from the application of the authentic American democracy was established after the failure of integrating the left and the right groups. For the Republic of Korea, but it was an urgent matter to make room for securing various voices against the threat of independence and communism.