{"title":"Interest Group Politics","authors":"Y. Lim, Yeonho Lee","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.20","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.20","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"350 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115887261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The ROK–US Alliance","authors":"V. Cha, K. Katz","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.39","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.39","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores drivers of the resilience of the South Korea–US alliance in the midst of changes and challenges that could have led to its weakening or collapse. Since its founding in 1953, the alliance has expanded far beyond its original mandate of preventing a second North Korean invasion and containing the spread of communism during the Cold War. A number of dramatic changes have taken place over the lifetime of the alliance, including South Korea’s remarkable economic development and democratization, the end of the Cold War, and the rise of China to become the world’s second largest economy. The alliance has also weathered a number of difficult phases—including the ‘Nixon and Carter shocks’ of the late 1960s and 1970s, tensions over North Korea policy in the early 2000s, and recent years of discord over narrow alliance issues like military cost-sharing, while coordination on pressing security matters was sparse. This chapter reviews alliance patterns since its foundational years and argues that a combination of two factors explain the resilience of the alliance: (a) the persistence of common security interests; and (b) alliance management strategies in Washington and Seoul—including periodic US efforts to reassure South Korea of its security commitments and South Korea’s pursuit of new areas of cooperation, even as it has developed and sought greater autonomy.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130980221","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New Issue Politics","authors":"Seung-Jin Jang","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.18","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter reviews some of the new issues that have become, or will potentially become, salient in South Korean politics: welfare and redistribution, gender, and immigration. While traditional political cleavage based on generational differences in political ideology still persists, these new issues have gained political significance and public attention, creating different political coalitions across South Korean voters. Though they may have not fundamentally changed South Korean politics, they have certainly diversified its issue content. For each of these issues, the chapter discusses their background, how South Koreans think about them, and what implications they have in understanding contemporary South Korean politics.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"47 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115014733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Citizens’ Support for Democracy","authors":"Y. cho","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.23","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the cultural deconsolidation of South Korean democracy from 1996 to 2018. Analysing the five waves of the World Values Survey, the chapter finds that public support for democracy has steadily eroded and openness to strongman and military rules has increased in South Korea. The analysis reveals that cultural deconsolidation of South Korean democracy started during the early 2000s and, more importantly, this downward trend continued even after the 2016–2017 Candlelight protest. Therefore, the cultural foundation of democracy in South Korea is shallow and its democracy has fallen into a low-equilibrium trap, in which resilient violation of liberal integrity among leaders is matched by the low confidence of citizens in democracy.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"42 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134053513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decentralization and Local Government","authors":"Yooil Bae","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.32","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.32","url":null,"abstract":"South Korea’s central–local relations since its democratic transition in the late 1980s have been marked by institutionalization of local politics and delayed decentralization. After the long dominance of centralism, the past two decades have experienced the introduction of democratic institutions for local politics, including popular election of local politicians and delegation of formal authorities to lower levels of government. On the one hand, this development has empowered localities, nurtured some prominent politicians and democratic citizenship, and created a local political arena. On the other hand, weak administrative and fiscal capacities of localities have led to frequent confrontation with the central government and a growing gap among localities. Higher fiscal dependency on central transfer and a shrinking local population is expected to further burden localities and widen regional economic disparity, which may pose a threat to local democracy.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134605056","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Movements","authors":"Jin-Wook Shin","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.19","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.19","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter describes the developments and macrostructural changes of South Korean social movements after democratization in 1987. Several aspects will be highlighted: First, the developments in the number of civil society organizations, citizens’ participation in civil society activities, and non-violent protest culture have been accelerated since the 2000s. Second, the social movement sector has been differentiated into independent issue areas, leading to more diversity, but also to uneven development between movement areas. Third, with the rise of networked social movements, the communication and mobilization structures and the broader ecosystem of social movements have become increasingly decentralized. Fourth, not only has the ideological division between progressive and conservative movements intensified, but also radical right-wing movements are spreading. Fifth, most recently, a new generation of social movements representing the voices of women, youth, precarious workers, and local communities is growing quickly.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"59 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123131163","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Corruption","authors":"Kyoung-sun Min","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.33","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.33","url":null,"abstract":"It is widely perceived that while South Korea has shown miraculous economic development, the level of corruption has not decreased overall. However, this general perception is not valid, due to the decoupling of petty corruption from grand corruption. Several corruption indices indicate that petty corruption has successfully decreased. This chapter explains the difference between petty corruption and grand corruption and measures the level of petty and grand corruption with various indices. The chapter also analyses the decoupling of petty and grand corruption by using historical institutionalism. A critical juncture created by the Asian Financial Crisis, democratization, and internet technology explains a low level of petty corruption. Path dependence, fortified by crony capitalism and prosecutorial power, helps us to understand a high level of grand corruption. Political leaders should show their political will to fight grand corruption if they want to control it. Unfortunately, political will has not been enough to fight grand corruption. To test this assertion, this chapter evaluates the anti-corruption policies of South Korea.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"528 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116199674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How Are Minorities Represented Politically in South Korea?","authors":"Kyungmee Park","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.15","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter discusses gender, migrants, and generational representations in South Korean politics. Minority representation has been not debated in the political realm in earnest. Therefore, political minorities continue to serve minor roles in the National Assembly. Although the gender quota system has significantly contributed to the improvement of gender representation, the percentage of female incumbents in the National Assembly is lower than the critical point required to fundamentally transform the political realm. Migrant representation exists at a symbolic level and is yet to be addressed sufficiently. Generational representation has emerged in recent discussions. This is because political parties tend to consider gender, migrants, and generation to be representing marginal groups. This study shows that the improvement of minority representation depends on how political parties nominate their electoral candidates to receive increased seats.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117135377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Political Communication","authors":"H. Lee","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.17","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter introduces political communication by focusing on electoral campaign communication. The evolution of campaign communication is associated with communication tools. Up until the 1997 presidential election, the main campaign method may be considered to have been mass rallies. The 1997 presidential election is considered the first TV election in South Korea. Since the 2002 presidential election, online communication tools have played a significant role in campaigning. Today, no candidate can win an election without using online communication tools in South Korea. Candidates mainly use online communication tools to mobilize voters, rather than to discuss policies. The influence of new media on South Korean voters is yet uncertain. The use of new media tends to positively affect political participation online, and online political participation is associated with offline political participation. However, the use of new media neither significantly nor consistently explains offline political participation and individual vote choice.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"65 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123872916","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Internet and Social Media","authors":"D. Jin","doi":"10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.25","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter examines the close relationships between the growth of new media technologies, including the internet, social media, and smartphones, and Korean politics. It analyses how the internet and social media have been influencing political messaging, voter behaviour, and the circulation of ideas in Korea, in which traditional media such as broadcasting and newspapers have played a major role in national politics, since the early 2000s onwards. It also explores how internet portals such as Naver and Daum (now Kakao) and mobile messaging services, such as KakaoTalk and Line, which account for over 70 per cent and 90 per cent of their respective markets, shape the political conversation and can act as gatekeepers for the circulation of ideas. Finally, it investigates whether the growth of these new media technologies has influenced people’s perceptions of politics and elections, which means that it discusses people’s use of new media technologies in their political practices.","PeriodicalId":177101,"journal":{"name":"The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124896346","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}