Abstract
Koreans are now on the path toward an advanced democracy with good qualities in terms of the rule of law, political freedom and civil liberties, electoral and interinstitutional accountability, responsiveness of representatives, human security, effective administration, transparency and control of corruption, active political participation of citizens, and equality. Recently, however, many have spoken of a retreat of democracy in South Korea. They identify this retreat in the area of political freedom and civil liberties, especially freedom of speech and freedom of expression, which have been seriously transgressed by the two consecutive conservative governments of Lee Myung Bak and Park Geun Hye. With regard to those two basic freedoms, South Korea under the Lee and Park governments was classified as a “partly free” country by Freedom House and Reporters without Borders.
Hyug Baeg Im, “Better Democracy, Better Economic Growth?,” International Political Science Review Vol.32, No.5, 579–597, November, 2011.
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Notes
- 1.
The WGI measures six dimensions of governance, one of which is the rule of law. The WGI dimensions aggregate several hundred variables, measuring perceptions of governance drawn from 35 data sources constructed by 33 different organizations around the world.
- 2.
With regard to illegal acts, including demonstrations called by a group of 50 or more injured parties, the group filed a lawsuit to demand compensation for damage.
- 3.
The Cingranelli–Richards (CIRI) Human Rights Dataset contains standards-based quantitative information on government respect for 15 internationally recognized human rights for 195 countries, annually from 1981 to 2009. See www.humanrightsdata.org.
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Im, H.B. (2020). Better Democracy, Better Economic Growth? South Korea. In: Democratization and Democracy in South Korea, 1960–Present. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3703-5_11
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