한,일 양국의 사회정보화 현황과 과제 ; 한국의 정보화와 정치사회적 맥락

Abstract

The issue of informatization is no doubt currently mobilizing globalized attention. This attention seems to be by no means solely confined to the Western developed countries; no less amount of concerns are identifiable in many of developing countries as well. Indeed it has become a world-scale topic. Behind the evolving notion of informatization lies the sheer conviction that speedy adoption of digitalized information infrastructure and establishing a linkage with globalized information networks will safely provide a strategic imperative for promoting the nation's political democracy and socio-economic development. A variety of indicators suggest that developing countries are no exception to this globalized rush for the historical trend of "information revolution," allocating a large portion of their financial resources to this end, regardless of their persistent lack of economic, industrial, financial and other social bases. It is true, though, that the dream of developing countries to build up a modernized national information infrastructure as an essential technological basis for leap-frogging into affluent and democratic societies is more often than not (confronted by skeptical questioning of its own validity in reality. Critical assessment of the informatization of developing countries often displays in many instances not so much satisfactory consequences as compared with their original dream of leap-frogging. The installation of advanced information infrastructure in the context of developing nations, some critics argue, appears to bring about not so much political and social benefits as system maladjustment (Park, 1990).