Instructors
Jang Jip Choi - Professor, Korea University

This course surveys the trajectory of democracy in South Korea (hereafter Korea) since the mid-1980s. There is no doubt that democracy in Korea has been consolidated. However, the mere fact that Korean democracy is consolidated may disguise what kind of democracy it is and which democracy it is. In this course we will discuss the issues and problems with which Korean democracy is facing today. We will explore both what Korean mass public has expected and what Korean democracy has delivered. Thus, our chief concern will be about “which democracy?” rather than about “whether Korea is a democratic country or not?”

Throughout the course, our discussion will focus on “contextualized” understanding of the trajectory and characteristics of Korean democracy. In this sense, our discussion will differ from prevailing expositions of democracy in Korea, which have emphasized de-contextualized comparability across countries and over time. We will focus more on context-specific understanding of the continuities and changes in Korean democracy.

We will explore several issues. Most prominent among them will be the ideological and ideational changes; socio-economic development and changes;  distributional consequences and labor market changes; the state-civil society relations; political parties and party systems; interest groups and voluntary associations; the scope of inclusion in politics; and political participation. Through our discussions on these issues, this course aims at evaluating what Korean democracy has achieved, what it has yet to achieve, and why the paths toward democracy in Korea can be termed “conservative democratization.”

Level
Undergraduate

Department
Department of Sociology
School of Humanities and Sciences