Towards a New Conception of Identity Politics Based on Natural Law: A Suggestion for Development of a Cultural Democracy

The aim of this study is to conceive the new identity politics that can contribute to the development of democracy in Korean society after democratization in ’87. The new task is not a struggle to gain recognition of the identity of minority groups anymore. This struggle divides civil society and sets democracy back. Since identity consists of symbols as well as cultural images, this study named the democracy movement of the post-democratization as ‘the cultural democracy movement.’ It is a cultural struggle that can extend democracy to society as a whole by publicizing the meaning and value system that is operating within everyday life. Furthermore, it is a practice that creates common values which can accommodate different identities. This is a kind of life politics to overcome everyday evil that contrasts identities clearly and excludes others. These new tasks of identity politics are based on ethical ideas derived from a critical review of natural law. These are especially based on a tradition that emphasizes human reason and existential natural law that seeks to escape the charge of essentialism. So, the new identity politics is based on a moral basis on the existential relational aspect of human beings, solidarity and communicative reason.