ABSTRACT
The main question this book sought to answer concerned the causes of instability and the lack of governability in post-authoritarian South Korea. It has done so by looking at how political coalitions formed and broke apart during the various administrations. In particular, attention has been given to the more recent phase of democratic politics in Korea, namely the Kim Dae-jung (in greater length) and the Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak administrations. Despite popular expectations that democratization would also bring effective governability and political stability to South Korea, the reality of politics in the country was characterized by continuous political crises and the government’s failure to implement reform policies. As noted by Choi (2002) and Diamond and Kim (2000), Korea’s ‘crisis of success’ even led some citizens to look back with nostalgia to the old authoritarian times as newly established democratic institutions became associated with constant political turmoil and in-fighting.
