Doh Chull Shin

Democratization Backwards: The Problem of Third-Wave Democracies

Countries in the third wave of democratization have introduced competitive elections before establishing basic institutions of a modern state such as the rule of law, institutions of civil society and the accountability of governors. By contrast, countries in the first wave of democratization became modern states before universal suffrage was introduced. Because they have democratized backwards, most third-wave countries are currently incomplete democracies. Incomplete democracies can develop in three different ways: completing democratization; repudiating free elections and turning to an undemocratic alternative; or falling into a low-level equilibrium trap in which the inadequacies of elites are matched by low popular demands and expectations. The significance of incomplete democratization is shown by analysing public opinion survey data from three new democracies varying in their predecessor regimes: the Russian Federation (a totalitarian past); the Czech Republic (both a democratic and a totalitarian past) and the Republic of Korea (formerly an authoritarian military regime).

Democratization and Participation: Comparing Spain, Brazil, and Korea

This paper tests a model of cross-national variation in participation, using survey data from Spain, Brazil, and Korea. We posit a continuum ranging from neighborhood ties through membership in voluntary associations to political participation. The gap between Spain and peer countries grows as the continuum shifts from prepolitical to political spheres. Our model highlights three factors-labor market participation, gender, and religiosity-as determinants of cross-national differences in civic engagement. The impact of employment and gender is consistent with previous studies of their role in conditioning participation. By contrast, the religious factor contradicts conventional notions regarding its downward effects on participation. The negative effect of religiosity in Spain and its positive effect in Korea and Brazil are a function of distinctive histories of church-state relations and, in particular, of different strategies of church-sponsored mobilization during the course of democratization.

How mass political attitudes affect democratization: Exploring the facilitating role critical democrats play in the process

For decades, scholars of political culture have held that mass political attitudes have a profound impact on the process of democratization. In studying this impact, an increasing number of political scientists have recently theorized that the level of democratization a political system reaches depends on the extent to which its political institutions meet citizen demand for democracy. In testing such theoretical models of democratic demand and supply, however, many political scientists have mistakenly equated democratic demand with citizen preference for democracy over its alternatives. In this study, we first argue that popular demand for democracy is not the same thing as democratic regime preference or support. Instead, demand for democracy arises from dissatisfaction with democracy-in-practice. By analyzing the fourth wave of the World Values Survey, we then demonstrate that the critical orientations of democrats promote democratic development more powerfully than do the two attitudes — democratic re...For decades, scholars of political culture have held that mass political attitudes have a profound impact on the process of democratization. In studying this impact, an increasing number of political scientists have recently theorized that the level of democratization a political system reaches depends on the extent to which its political institutions meet citizen demand for democracy. In testing such theoretical models of democratic demand and supply, however, many political scientists have mistakenly equated democratic demand with citizen preference for democracy over its alternatives. In this study, we first argue that popular demand for democracy is not the same thing as democratic regime preference or support. Instead, demand for democracy arises from dissatisfaction with democracy-in-practice. By analyzing the fourth wave of the World Values Survey, we then demonstrate that the critical orientations of democrats promote democratic development more powerfully than do the two attitudes — democratic regime support and self-expression values — that prior public opinion research has identified as the forces driving democratization.

Social Capital and Democratic Citizenship: The Case of South Korea

The Asian Barometer (ABS) is an applied research program on public opinion on political values, democracy, and governance around the region. The regional network encompasses research teams from twelve East Asian political systems (Japan, Mongolia, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore, and Indonesia), and five South Asian countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal). Together, this regional survey network covers virtually all major political systems in the region, systems that have experienced different trajectories of regime evolution and are currently at different stages of political transition. The ABS Working Paper Series is intended to make research result within the ABS network available to the academic community and other interested readers in preliminary form to encourage discussion and suggestions for revision before final publication. Scholars in the ABS network also devote their work to the Series with the hope that a timely dissemination of the findings of their surveys to the general public as well as the policy makers would help illuminate the public discourse on democratic reform and good governance. The topics covered in the Series range from country-specific assessment of values change and democratic development, region-wide comparative analysis of citizen participation, popular orientation toward democracy and evaluation of quality of governance, and discussion of survey methodology and data analysis strategies. The ABS Working Paper Series supercedes the existing East Asia Barometer Working Paper Series as the network is expanding to cover more countries in East and South Asia. Maintaining the same high standard of research methodology, the new series both incorporates the existing papers in the old series and offers newly written papers with a broader scope and more penetrating analyses. The ABS Working Paper Series is issued by the Asian Barometer Project Office, which is jointly sponsored by the Department of Political Science of National Taiwan University and the Institute of Political Science of Academia Sinica. At present, papers are issued only in electronic version.

Subjective Quality of Korean Life in 1981 and 2001

Over the past two decades, Korea has been transformed into an economic powerhouse, a maturing democracy, a nation of cities, and a society of mixed cultures. How have these changes affected the quality of life that ordinary Koreans experience in the private and public spheres of their lives? In their eyes, what specific domains of Korean life have changed for the better? What life domains have changed for the worse? This paper explores these questions with two sets of national sample surveys conducted, respectively, in 1981 and 2001. Analyses of these surveys reveal that the Korean people, as a whole, tend to feel that they are worse off than they were 20 years ago. Over this same period, they felt that the domains of health, education, work, and community have changed for the better, while the three domains of leisure, the government, and the country have changed for the worse. Notwithstanding all the significant improvements in the standards of their living, Koreans do not express a significantly greater sense of well-being about the domains of income and housing. Most surprising is that they feel worse about the freely elected democratic government, than they did about the repressive military regime of 20 years ago. Why has the perceived quality of the Korean government deteriorated rather than improved in the wake of democratic regime change? This remains unanswered.

How does democratic regime change affect mass political ideology? A case study of South Korea in comparative perspective

This article explores the ideological dynamics of democratic regime change in South Korea from a comparative perspective. Analyzing national sample surveys conducted during the first decade of democratic rule, we find that the democratization of the country’s right-wing dictatorship has resulted in a movement of many South Koreans from the right to the left on the ideological spectrum. However, many of the South Koreans who have shifted their position on the spectrum have done so without changing their thinking about what “the left” and “the right” represent. This particular pattern of ideological dynamics that features change in identification, but continuity in content, confirms two distinct theories. As expected from the theory of democratic human development, democratization provided South Koreans with a wide array of legal rights allowing them to think freely. As expected from the theory of political socialization, however, the content of the thinking retains an old, authoritarian conception of rule. Unlike the democratization of political institutions, which can be achieved in a few years, the democratization of mass political thinking appears to be an intergenerational phenomenon that requires more than a decade for completion.

The Third Wave in East Asia Comparative and Dynamic Perspectives

This article offers a comprehensive and dynamic account of democratization in East Asia over the past two decades. It first traces the history of democratic transitions in the region, and thereafter examines their contours, modes, and sources from a comparative perspective. It then considers the extent to which third-wave democracies have consolidated, by appraising the quality of their performances. Finally, it explores the prospect of democratic regime change in China and Singapore. Analyses of Freedom House and the World Bank data reveal that the East Asian region has been slow in responding to the surging wave of global democratization in terms of not only transforming authoritarian regimes into electoral democracies, but also consolidating electoral democracies into well-functioning liberal democracies. Analyses of the Asian Barometer surveys, on the other hand, suggest that the mass citizenries of China and Singapore endorse their current regime as a well-functioning democracy, and are not much in favor of democratic regime change in their respective countries.

Asia's Challenged Democracies

East Asian democracies are in distress. From Bangkok to Manila to Taipei to Seoul to Ulaanbaatar, democratically elected governments in the last few years have suffered inconclusive or disputed ele...

The Cultural and Institutional Dynamics of Global Democratization a Synthesis of Mass Experience and Congruence Theory

This essay offers a comprehensive account of the current wave of global democratization by examining the democratic changes that have taken place in both the political institutions and mass citizenries of new democracies in Africa, East Asia, Latin America, and New Europe. After reviewing previous research findings on the breadth and depth of institutional and cultural democratization, the essay analyzes their relationships with factual data and public opinion surveys. Analyses of four regional barometer surveys reveal that new democracies in three of the four regions confront the problem of low popular demand for democracy. On the basis of this finding, the essay concludes that the embrace of democracy as ”the only game in town” is a first step, not a last step, toward the democratization of mass citizenries.

Introduction: Parties, Party Choice, and Partisanship in East Asia

Political parties are widely seen as “a sine qua non for the organization of the modern democratic polity and for the expression of political pluralism.” 1 The manner in which parties articulate political interests largely defines the nature of electoral competition, the representation of citizen interests, the policy consequences of elections— and ultimately the functioning of the democratic process. 2 Consequently, the linkage between citizens and parties is an essential aspect of democratic politics—and the focus of the articles in this collection. By connecting citizens to the democratic process, political parties should give voice to social groups and their policy interests. Electoral choice is a vehicle for expressing the policy interests and political values of the public. Electoral studies in Western democracies have demonstrated how partisanship is a core element in political identities and behaviors, as well as a heuristic for organizing political information and guiding political choice. 3 Partisan ties also supposedly motivate citizens to participate in the political process. Thus, partisanship is routinely a strong predictor of a wide range of political predispositions and participatory actions ranging from political efficacy, to political involvement, to voting choice. These various linkages between citizens and parties are the main theme of this collection of articles, which is motivated by an overarching question: are the theoretical presumptions about the nature of electoral choice and the impact of partisan attachments equally applicable to the consolidated and emerging democracies of East Asia? To answer this question, we assembled a group of leading comparative scholars using a set of new cross-national public opinion surveys of East Asian nations. 4 Needless to say, East Asian political parties and party systems are quite diverse and were created under very different historical conditions. Therefore, the context of party competition differs across nations,