The Deconsolidation of Liberal Democracy in Korea : Exploring its Cultural Roots

Abstract

Why did liberal democracy backslide in Korea, a highly globalized and well-developed country, contrary to what is expected from neo-modernization and other prominent theories of democratization in the West? To explore this question, I propose a cultural theory of democratic deconsolidation, and test it with the Asian Barometer Korean surveys conducted over the period 2011-15. The analysis of these surveys indicates that socioeconomic development under the sponsorship of the state and big businesses has failed to emancipate both ordinary citizens and political leaders from the Confucian legacies of political paternalism and social harmony. Moreover, it has failed to instill them with the bourgeois impulse to become a free and equal being. As the habits of their hearts and minds, these legacies powerfully motivate both groups to reembrace or condone the resurgence of autocratic political practices. Empirically, therefore, the deconsolidation of liberal democracy in this highly modernized country and the prevalence of affinity for paternalistic autocracy among its people directly challenge the Western theories that link socioeconomic modernization to human emancipation and liberal democratization.