The rocky road to new democracy in South Korea 1

2021 ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Kwang-Yeong Shin
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
New Democracy

Fake Spies, Democratization, and Transitional Justice in South Korea

Asian Survey ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-386
Author(s):  
Sunkyoung Park ◽  
Ji Yeon Hong
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Survey Analysis ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Past ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
New Democracy

Many democracies start with aspirations to rectify wrongs that occurred under the preceding authoritarian regime. To what extent can a new democracy address political repression and violence by dictators, given that key actors from the past often remain politically powerful? What determines the success of those efforts? We construct and analyze a novel data set on 102 retrials of allegedly fabricated espionage cases in South Korea to explain the political conditions under which a democratic judiciary reverses past errors. We find that the time since democratization, a leader’s policy drive for transitional justice, and the degree of fabrication in the past all affect retrial acquittal rates. We also find that judges who were appointed under the authoritarian regime are less likely to nullify past verdicts. Furthermore, national survey analysis suggests that the overturning of past fabricated verdicts significantly enhances citizens’ overall trust in the judiciary.

Testing legislative shirking in a new setting: the case of lame duck sessions in the Korean National Assembly

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-52
Author(s):  
Bon Sang Koo ◽  
Junseok Kim ◽  
Jun Young Choi
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Leisure Time ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
National Assembly ◽  
Hurdle Models ◽  
Voting Participation ◽  
Lame Duck ◽  
Voting Decisions ◽  
New Democracy

AbstractThis paper aims to test two types of legislative shirking in a new democracy, South Korea. Using the lame-duck sessions of the Korean National Assembly, we test whether a legislator shirks in voting participation and in voting decisions. We weave two competing motivations of legislative shirking in voting participation – that to secure more leisure time and that to utilize the last, valuable voting opportunity – into a synthetic hypothesis and test it with two-part hurdle models. To test a shirking in voting participation hypothesis, we analyze legislators’ choices on bills that are supposedly related to the interests of constituents or political parties. Empirical results strongly support our shirking in voting participation claims, while only partial evidence is found on shirking in voting decisions. The findings suggest that, besides the trade-off between labor and leisure, some legislators deem the lame-duck sessions an opportunity to express their own preferences unconstrained.

Targeting Public Spending in a New Democracy: Evidence from South Korea

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
HYEOK YONG KWON
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Government Expenditure ◽  
Public Spending ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Fiscal Policies ◽  
Significant Extent ◽  
New Democracy ◽  
Electoral Calendar

Empirical studies of electoral competition and public policy in new democracies have been relatively underdeveloped. This article investigates the election-policy outcome link in a ‘hard case’ setting: South Korea in 1988–97. Contrary to expectations derived from the bureaucratic insulation or fiscal co-ordination argument, this study suggests a systematic impact of electoral competition on levels and distributive patterns of public spending. The analysis finds that levels of government expenditure increased according to the electoral calendar. Also, national subsidies tended to be allocated to ‘swing’ provinces in which electoral contests are competitive. The results of the analysis clearly show that fiscal policies in democratizing Korea are to a significant extent determined by electoral politics.

New Nationalism and New Democracy- Assessing An Jae-hong’s Legacy

2018 ◽  
pp. 63-72
Author(s):  
Natalia Kim
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Political History ◽  
Cultural Nationalism ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
Korean Nationalism ◽  
New Democracy ◽  
Political Realities ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
Korean Nation

To provide a glimpse into this period and ideas prominent at the time, the article explores the ideas of the Korean intellectual An Jae-hong, a scholar-gentleman whose career spans the nation’s colonial period and was entwined with debates over Korean nationalism. Natalia Kim channels and develops the insights from her work on the period and her book, South Korea, 1945–1948: A Political History. Focusing specifically on An’s cultural nationalism, as revealed in his work, Dr. Kim demonstrates how An’s thoughts on the Korean nation and the ideal political type (his ‘new nationalism’ and ‘new democracy’) were influenced by the historical experience and global political realities of his day.

Candlelight demonstrations and the presidential impeachment in South Korea

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shin-Goo Kang
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
New Democracy ◽  
Modern Representative

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze the short-term and long-term causes of the candlelight demonstrations and the ensuing presidential impeachment in South Korea, as well as the characteristics of the organization that planned the candlelight demonstrations and the participants of them. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on the previous literature, news articles, as well as various surveys on the randomly selected participants of the demonstrations and on a representative sample of Korean electorate, including non-participants as well. Findings The candlelight demonstrations, although “triggered” by a news report, would not have occurred, without angers and discontents accumulated over the president’s whole term by the irregularities and wrongdoings of the administration. The system of checks and balances in democratic system did not work properly. In that regard, the candlelight demonstrations and the ensuing presidential impeachment were just an unanticipated expression of the problems and defects built in the Korean democratic system of 1987, which would have found a way out in any form eventually. Originality/value Based on the analysis of the candlelight demonstrations and the ensuing presidential impeachment, the paper suggests instructive implications on a new democracy as well as on modern representative democracies that are in jeopardy now.

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