The candlelight protests in South Korea: a dynamics of contention approach

ABSTRACT About 17 million people participated in candlelight protests from October 2016 to April 2017 in South Korea calling for the president’s impeachment. In this episode, the president was, indeed, impeached through constitutional procedures for the first time in Korean history, and an early presidential election was held after the contentious episode was over. How can we explain this massive mobilization of candlelight protests in South Korea? Using a dynamics of contention approach, this article decomposes the mobilization process of candlelight protests into three mechanisms – attribution of political opportunities, shift in elite alignment, and expansion of mobilization networks. These mechanisms interacted and reinforced one another in the mobilization process of candlelight rallies for six months. This article traces these mechanisms by using various sources, including protest event data, public opinion data, documents by the national coalition for candlelight protests, and news media accounts.