Interest Group Politics

Abstract

Interest groups are organized in order to influence public policy by sharing common interests. This chapter aims to examine the most representative and well-known interest groups in South Korea, then historically analyses the changes in interest group politics within the context of democratization. In South Korea, interest group politics originally had responsive dependence on state power under the authoritarian regime. However, it has developed to competitive pluralism enough to check and supplement state power since the democratization of 1987 and has been characterized by conflictual pluralism since the 2010s. Finally, the chapter suggests the development for interest group politics in further pursuit of democracy in South Korea.