ABSTRACT
South Korea’s democracy displays two opposing patterns. In the sphere of institutionalized politics, the political system struggles to cast aside the deeply illiberal foundations on which it was built. Outside of party and electoral politics, ordinary citizens have proven themselves a crucial check on an insulated elite. A full assessment of South Korea’s democracy requires examination of both of these aspects, not only the institutionalized component. A major lesson from the country’s experience is that democratic transformation should be understood as a wider set of changes than is suggested in conventional thinking about democratization. Further lessons relate to the legacies of authoritarian state-building and the undoing of authoritarianism.
