Political protest and democratization in south Korea

Abstract

This article examines the primary causes of democratic transition in South Korea. The author probes the following two hypotheses: first, as the number of political protests increases, the government is more likely to make democratic concessions. Second, the more strongly the US government supports democratization, the more likely the government in South Korea is to make democratic concessions. This study focuses on the political actors’ strategic interactions and choices in the transition process, comparing the successful transition in 1987 with the aborted transition in 1980. The results of an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression indicate that political protests and US pressure had a significant impact on the 1987 transition to democracy.