The ideological disposition of Koreans

Abstract

This article empirically examines the features of Koreans' ideological disposition and its changes based on national surveys conducted in 2002 and 2004. This study provides an in-depth analysis of South Korea's current ideological polarisation at the level of voter attitudes, and thus is able to explain the current ideological stand-off in Korean society more intuitively than was possible previously. Analysis of ideological disposition on ten policy issues revealed that economic factors are statistically significant in examining ideological differences by age and occupation, contrary to the existing analysis that ideological conflict in South Korea is affected more by political factors. In addition, this study has found that there are several fundamental ideological dimensions that affect policy issues. They are categorised as Cold War authoritarianism, neo-liberalism, egalitarianism and post-materialistic values.

Key words:

• Political ideology
• Korean politics
• ideological disposition
• social cleavage
• conservative-liberal

Notes

¹ Former President Kim Dae-jung initially used the analogy of “sunshine” based on a well-known Aesop's fable about “wind and sunshine.” Kim argued that sunshine was more effective than strong wind in inducing North Korea to come out of isolation and avoid confrontation.

² The hoju system refers to the law denying women the rights to inherit their family's wealth and the right to be the head of family. The system was abolished on March 2005 by pressure from civil groups, after this survey was conducted.

³ The sequence of events began with the fatal traffic accident leading to “anti-American” sentiment and subsequent huge street demonstrations and burnings of the American flag was covered by local and international media (Kihl, 2005).

⁴ On the social conditions and outcomes of the neo-liberalism in Korea, see Lim and Jang (2006).