Overview

Like in many other states worldwide, democracy is in trouble in South Korea, entering a state of regression in the past decade, barely thirty years after its emergence in 1987. The society that recently had ordinary citizens leading candlelight protests demanding the impeachment of Park Geun-hye in 2016-17 has become polarized amid an upsurge of populism, driven by persistent structural inequalities, globalization, and the rise of the information society. The symptoms of democratic decline are increasingly hard to miss: political opponents are demonized, democratic norms are eroded, and the independence of the courts is whittled away. Perhaps most disturbing is that this all takes place under a government dominated by former pro-democracy activists. The contributors to this volume trace the sources of illiberalism in today's Korea; examine how political polarization is plaguing its party system; discuss how civil society and the courts have become politicized; look at the roles of inequality, education, and social media in the country's democratic decline; and consider how illiberalism has affected Korea's foreign policy.

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9781931368704

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Gi-Wook Shin is the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea in sociology and a senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He established Stanford's Korea Program in 2001, and has been directing the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford since 2005. As a historical-comparative and political sociologist, his research concentrates on social movements, nationalism, development, and international relations, with focus on Korea and broader Asia. Shin is the author/editor of over twenty books and numerous articles. Ho-Ki Kim is a professor of sociology at Yonsei University. He received his PhD from Bielefeld University in Germany. His major research interests include political sociology and modern social theories. He is the author of Contemporary Capitalism and Korean Society (in Korean, 1995), Modernity and Social Change in Korea (in Korean, 1999), Reflections on the Civil Society in Korea (in Korean, 2007), Zeitgesit and Intellectuals (in Korean, 2012), Adventures of Intellectuals in Modern Korea (in Korean, 2020), and Change of Ideological Terrain and Political Consciousness in South Korea (2005).

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