South Korea’s ability to manage social conflicts ranks near the bottom among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a report by a state-run research institute showed Thursday.
According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, Seoul ranked 27th among 34 OECD countries in a social conflict management index.
The index is based on the effectiveness of a country’s administrative system, regulations, corruption management and government spending.
The report showed that the Danish government had the highest capacity to resolve social conflicts, followed by Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Canada was the sole North American country in the top 10, while the United States was ranked 20th. Mexico finished at the bottom of the list.
Researchers looked at factors that can cause social conflicts, including limited press freedom and access to information, income inequality and social demographics.
South Korea’s potential sources of conflict were rated as the fourth-biggest among the 24 countries the researchers could compile data on. Chile, Israel and Turkey made up the top three, while Finland was the most free of conflict factors.
Over the past few years, Korea has seen a widening income gap, along with worsening press freedom. According to Statistics Korea, the country’s poverty gap ― the disparity between median household income and average income of the poor ― marked 36.4 percent in 2014, increasing each year from 34.5 percent in 2011.
Korea’s press freedom ranking has also been weakening, according to Reporters Without Borders, from 50th overall in 2013 to 57th in 2014 and 60th this year.
In a comprehensive “social conflict” index combining both conflict factors and conflict-management competence, South Korea was ranked fifth worst out of 24 countries. Turkey, Greece, Chile and Italy were ranked highest, while the Scandinavian trio of Denmark, Finland and Sweden were least vulnerable to conflict.
“Both the social conflict and social conflict-management indices showed a meaningful correlation with economic development, but not conflict factors. This implies that we need to focus more on positive aspects from managing social conflicts,” the report said.
By Yoon Min-sik ()
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
