ADRN

The KF Korea Workshop is hosted by the Korea Foundation and organized by the East Asia Institute to promote and share understanding of Korean social, political, and economic issues among international residents in Korea.

For the third lecture of the 2019 KF Korea Workshop, Professor Kang Won-taek from the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Seoul National University spoke about the last 30 years of democratization in Korea, and also touched upon the current political cleavage in Korea.

Professor Kang noted that the democratization of Korea belonged to the third wave of democratization, which saw authoritarian governments from South America to Eastern Europe topple between the 1970’s and 1990’s. He argued that the democratization of Korea was unique, because it did not come about through the collapse of the prior authoritarian system, but instead was the result of political compromise. This political legacy has allowed Korea to resolve constitutional crises peacefully, such as the impeachments of former presidents.

Professor Kang then explained the four factors that can explain why democracy is relatively healthy in Korea: the legacy of electoral politics from the authoritarian era; compromise and the rejection of polarization; the early experience of sharing political power between the executive and the legislature; and the successful resolution of the two issues identified by Samuel Huntington as “the torturer problem” and “the praetorian problem” which every transitioning democracy must face.

While Korea has receded into the “flawed democracy” category set forth by the Economist Democracy Index, Korea still boasts the best democratic system among other Asian countries. Part of the reason why Korea had receded into this category is, as Professor Kang argued, that Korea had become complacent with its political system and yearned for the “good old days” of economic growth and efficient leadership under former President Park Chung-hee.

Finally touching on the issue of Korea’s political cleavage, Professor Kang noted that the influence of regionalism has become a less powerful in recent years. Instead, the main split in political sentiments seems to exist between generations, and over the North Korean issue. The professor ended his lecture by suggesting that Korea “upgrade” its democracy by deepening its procedural democracy, promoting political integration, and ensuring more open participation.

The lecture was followed by a Q&A session, where participants asked questions about Koreans’ attitudes towards the United States, polarization in Korean society, and the future of Korean democracy.