The idea or saying that “the grass is always greener on the other side” is often used to describe individuals, but it can also be applied to more sharply and politically. This writing will apply this idea to how nations perceive one another. However, it will not be as long as the writings of Hegel or Kant. It will be short.
In the 21st century, countries rarely evaluate themselves in isolation. Instead, they are infected by this incurable disease called comparison. A rich nation may look abroad and see other countries with stronger social welfare systems and then look inward to ask why its own citizens struggle with problems such as insecurity or inequality. A country with extensive welfare protections then look at foreign states with greater economic power or technological advancement and feel envious. Even highly militarised states are not immune to comparison; they may observe others with higher living standards or greater cultural influence and feel the pain in the chest.
In this sense, international relations are not only about material balance, but about perception. This perception creates a sense of insecurity. That insecurity creates rivalry. Then, rivalry leads to conflicts and wars. Perception, therefore, creates deaths.
Strength in one area can highlight the vulnerability in another. This creates a kind of permanent comparative psychology at the level of states. A state can never feel completed.
Political systems are not only judged by results, but also by the stories that they tell about how well they handle the human life. Liberal systems are valued for freedom but criticised for inequality, while socialist systems are seen as more equal but sometimes less efficient or innovative.
In contrast, Juche, the state ideology of the DPR Korea, tries to reject this constant comparison by emphasizing self-reliance and internal consistency. It argues that progress should be defined by a society’s own goals and conditions, rather than external approval, which it sees as a form of dependence on outside validation.
From this view, Juche can be seen as an attempt to solve this unaddressed psychological disease. I called this comparison an unaddressed disease as if nations keep measuring themselves against others, they risk shaping their development around foreign benchmarks rather than internal needs and morals. Juche, in this way, argues that a society should develop according to its own history, culture, and collective goals. It is one of the only few theories, that seeks to reduce the “greener grass” mentality by grounding national confidence in internal standards rather than foreign examples. Therefore, Juche is a liberating theory or ideology that not only liberates the nation, but also the nation’s mind from an international “disease”.
However, it is important to be precise: no country exists entirely outside of this seeming universal comparison. Even systems that stress on independence still operate in a world where economic data, military balance, technological development, and cultural influence are continuously observed across borders. Comparison is not just ideological. It is structural and it is built into the modern global system.
What matters more is not whether comparison happens, but how it is handled. Some systems use this to push competition and reform, while others see it as a threat to stability. Either way, the “greener grass” effect stays, there’s always another country that seems better in some domain.
Ultimately, the question may not be which nation or system escapes comparison, but whether comparison itself can ever be stopped. Or whether it is simply part of how nations, like individuals, define progress.
Essay by Kimlong Ly
Assistant Researcher, British Study Group for the Study of the Juche Idea
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