Political Change and Human Rights Policy in South Korea and Mongolia

Abstract

This paper compares the shifts in human rights policy between South Korea and Mongolia based on the Five-Phase “Spiral” model, which explains how the introduction of international human rights norms in a repressive state can improve the human rights situation. According to the spiral model, continuous bilateral and multilateral network pressure, along with the mobilization and strengthening of domestic networks through transnational networks induce “regime change” and human rights policy change in the third phase, “Tactical Concession” and a transfer to the fourth phase, “Prescriptive Status”. South Korea and Mongolia transferred from a developmental dictatorship and socialist one-party dictatorship, respectively, into democratic regimes with outstanding changes in their human rights policies. Yet, when applying the spiral model, this study found a difference in the ‘transnational network pressure’ on each country, which also led to other differences in the ‘formation of the domestic actors’ and ‘sustained links to transnational networks’. As a result, the difference between the two countries which started with the change of human rights policy after the democratization and which is not mentioned in the spiral model, has meant that Mongolia still remains in the “Prescriptive Status” stage, whereas South Korea has moved on to the final phase, “Rule-consistent behavior.”