The Effect of Social Conflict Perception on Satisfaction with the Level of Democracy: Focusing on the Moderating Effect of Economic Situation Satisfaction

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified social conflicts in Korean society. Scholars saw that the increase in social conflict could be a hindrance to national economic growth and a barrier to democracy. However, in previous studies, there is a limitation in that various aspects of social conflict in modern society have not been contained by connecting citizens' satisfaction with the level of democracy and economic situation. Therefore, in this study, the effect of social conflict-related perceptions on democratic level satisfaction was examined, focusing on the effect of economic situation satisfaction. The study conducted statistical analysis using multiple regression analysis using data from the 2021 Social Integration Survey by the Korea Institute of Public Administration. As a result of the study, it was confirmed that social conflict-related perceptions had a significant effect on democratic level satisfaction, but their influence differed depending on the pattern of conflict. From this, it has the following research and policy implications. First, the conflict of material needs is found to be caused by conflicts involving economic interests, requiring fairness-oriented policies such as guaranteeing equality of opportunity. Second, the value conflict resulted from cultural differences, and policies to prevent cultural polarization should be considered in that if cultural and value conflicts are alleviated, democratic satisfaction can also be increased. Third, in the case of ideological conflict, ideological conflict can be seen as an opportunity to lead to participatory democracy in that stakeholders of ideological conflict show efforts to resolve the conflict. However, ideological conflicts appear to have more political factors than economic interests than other conflicts, so it is necessary for the government to play the role of coordinating and resolving ideological conflicts. Fourth, the government's efforts to resolve conflicts can lead to a positive evaluation of democracy. In order to solve the problem of social conflict in capitalist society, it should act as an active conflict resolution role of the government. Overall, the influence of social conflict on democratic satisfaction was revealed differently depending on the type and characteristics of the conflict. In addition, along with the economic situation satisfaction variable, it has a statistically greater influence. This proves that social conflict is strongly related to economic interests rather than simply independently caused. Therefore, rather than resolving each social conflict individually, efforts should be made to approach it from a comprehensive perspective according to the characteristics of each conflict.