Suchergebnisse

When Park Geun-hye was elected South Korea's first female president in 2012, many expected that South Korea's democracy would deepen. Contrary to the expectation, however, from the beginning of her administration, there were concerns about democracy retreating due to her leadership style/qualities. Despite her rather "undemocratic" leadership qualities, Park Geun-hye has consistently received 30% or higher job approval ratings until "Choi Soon-sil gate" broke out in October 2016. Thus, in this study, we analyzed what led to her leadership qualities and makes it possible for her to maintain a relatively high level of job approval ratings. We argue that her leadership qualities are the product of her unique personal background and South Korea's immature democratic institutions. She receives relatively strong support thanks to her father, President Park Chung-hee's (1961–1979) legacy.

ObjectiveDespite a plethora of studies on the relationship between democracy and economic development, a dominant theoretical framework has yet to emerge. Economic development may lead to the transition to democracy and mature democratic institutions are likely to help economic development. Thus, in this article, we test the relationship among economic development, institutional maturity, and democracy.MethodsIn a recent study, Gerring et al. (2005) developed a new concept, "democracy stock," to incorporate institutional maturity. This concept is useful because institutional maturity matters. To address the issue of endogeneity between democracy and economic development, we investigate the relationship using a simultaneous equation method and data from 1950 to 2000.ResultsThe empirical results show that democracy and economic development affect each other.ConclusionsEconomic development not only helps democratization, but it also assists democratic systems to survive and mature. Mature democratic systems do help economic development.

South Korea experienced democratization in 1987, yet violations of the democratic rule of law are rather common; such actions are far from routine practices of democratic institutions. We argue that South Korea's political culture is the reason for the tardy maturing of democratic institutions.