Changing patterns of electoral participation in Korea: Decreasing mobilized participation and democratization
Abstract
In this theoretical perspective of the liberal democratic participation model, it is expected that areas with a higher level of education, higher income, higher status occupations, and younger citizens would have a higher level of political participation than areas lacking these characteristics. This expectation has been supported by many election studies in the Western democracies that the likelihood of voting is positively related to the socioeconomic status of the individual voter. In contrast to this general expectation, voting participation has differed in Korea from citizen participation in a democratic setting. The most striking pattern in Korean electoral politics was lower voter turnout in urban districts than in rural districts Also, opposition parties tended to find substantially more supporters in the more developed urban districts, while the government parties have generated more votes in less developed rural areas. These urban-rural differences in voting behavior in Korea have been explained in terms of mobilized voting. The primary concern of this paper is to examine whether the pattern of mobilized political participation has been diminished in Korea as a case of a modernizing and democratizing country. This study argues that there has been a shift in the nature of participation from mobilized participation to a more autonomous participation along with socioeconomic development and cultural changes in Korea for last five decades. Specifically, this study suggests that socioeconomic s study suggests that socioeconomic development brought psychological modernization; as the society becomes more modern, so do individuals, acquiring a higher level of individual modernity. This process contributes to erode the social bases of mobilized voting, depriving the regime in power of its once-secure electoral advantages.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Wilson, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Political science
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