Korean Journal of Policy Studies

Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University

Korean J. Policy Stud. 2020; 35(1):1-27

pISSN: 1225-5017, eISSN: 2765-2807

Article

Impartial, Skilled, Respect for Law: The Ancient Ideals of Civil Servants at the root of Eastern and Western Traditions

Jos C.N. Raadschelders¹

¹Jos C.N. Raadschelders is a professor in the Ohio State University. E-mail: raadschelders.1@osu.edu.

© Copyright 2020 Graduate School of Public Administration, Seoul National University. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Received: Dec 23, 2019; Revised: Jan 03, 2020; Revised: Feb 25, 2020; Accepted: Feb 28, 2020

Published Online: Apr 30, 2020

Abstract

When studying civil service traditions, scholars often contrast the Eastern, Confucian tradition from the Western, Weberian tradition. A few Korean and American scholars pointed out that the two traditions are not that different. It is argued in this article that they are not, because they are both grounded in the ancient Egyptian wisdom literature about what makes a good civil servant. They are impartial in their dealings with people, the have the administrative and technical skills necessary, and they respect the rule of law. The ancient Egyptian, Confucian, and Weberian traditions are visible in the work of Yu Hyongwon, a 17^th century Korean scholar and civil servant.

Keywords: Civil service; Yu Hyŏngwŏn; Confucian tradition; Weberian tradition; ancient Egyptian wisdoms