Abstract

Founded in 2004, the New Right unraveled after just four years. Explanations for this point to a failure to attract public support. I discuss this failure in terms of what I call the problem of differentiation. Two visions of a rupture with the old right were articulated after 1987, for which historiography was central. The first is traceable to Yang Dong-an’s call in 1988 for a “new right” uniting regime and opposition conservatives to manage the transition to democracy without substantively changing the old regime. Jo Gap-je endowed this movement with a unifying historical narrative in 1993. The second is traceable to Kim Ilyeong’s call in 1995 for separating a positive historical narrative from support for the conservative establishment. These are two distinct visions of rupture with the old right, but the latter is burdened with the problem of differentiating itself from the former. As a case in point, Kim’s historiography was coopted by the very conservative establishment he sought to resist. Drawing on elite theory, I argue he did not adequately address the problem of differentiation. This has implications for understanding the failure of the New Right and other efforts to break with the old right.