Introduction: My Democratization Studies in Retrospect

Abstract

This introductory chapter narrates my 40 years’ journey in studying democratization and democracy in South Korea. I explain how I began studying the transition to democracy in the last days of authoritarian regimes in Mediterranean Europe, Latin America and East Asia under the guidance of my teacher at the University of Chicago, Adam Przeworski. I started by analyzing the distinctive characteristics of Park Chung Hee’s authoritarianism in South Korea, then launched into the democratic transition and consolidation in South Korea. I studied the opportunities and constraints to the new democracy in South Korea on its path to becoming a consolidated democracy, how that democracy changed industrial relations in the post-transition period as well as how pre-modern political cultures such as Confucian patrimonialism, familism, regionalism and party bossism obstructed and delayed democratic consolidation, hindering the new democracy in its attempts to upgrade to a quality democracy.