Citizens’ Support for Democracy

2022/02/14 by Youngho Cho · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Social Media and Politics #Religion and Society Interactions #Chinese history and philosophy

paper · doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780192894045.013.23

openalex publication_date 2022/02/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

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.

Discussions

• Secondly, as "outsiders", we are perhaps somewhat surprised by these moments of mass mobilization when we consider that citizens' support for democracy has also declined in South Korea since the 1990s [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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