Mass Politics and Culture in Democratizing Korea

How has Korea achieved one of the most successful transitions to democracy during the past decade? This pioneering book offers a dynamic and global account of Korea's place in the current third wave of democratization. Drawing on a unique sample of six national surveys conducted in Korea since 1988, the book carefully examines the evolution, contours and consequences of Korean democratization from the perspective of Korean people themselves and their experiences throughout the entire course of democratic change. Richly comparative, the book considers emerging democracies in East Asia, and in Europe and Latin America, in light of the Korean experience. Notably, it presents non-Western alternatives to institutional and cultural democratization, characterizing and distinguishing Korea as a non-Western and Confucian model of democratization.