Ideas on Democracy and Crisis of Democracy in Korea: A Historical Background

In order to understand the irreconcilable polarization that Korean democracy currently faces, this paper analyzes the ideas on democracy of major Korean political actors from a historical perspective. Existing studies on political polarization in Korea mainly find its causes at the institutional or cultural level. However, these approaches cannot simultaneously explain both the developments and limitations of Korean political institutions and culture. This study argues that how democracy works depends on how actors perceive democracy even under the same institution and culture. In addition, this study notes that ideas on democracy are formed in the process of actors' practicing and experiencing it. This work holds that the crisis of Korean democracy is based on a totalitarian or essentialist idea on democracy with low levels of plurality and openness and the idea on democracy was formed in the process of the democratic transition in the 1980s. This paper analyzes the process of main political parties’ competitions to achieve the democratic legitimacy.