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Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies. Vol. 5, No. 2. 2005.
2005 Academy of East Asian Studies. pp. 183-217
Appraising the Quality of Democracy in South Korea: From the Perspectives of Ordinary Citizens and their Daily Experiences
by Doh Chull Shin, University of Missouri-Columbia &
Chong Min Park, Korea University
 Page 194
     
     
  is apparent that, in the eyes of the Korean people, electoral democracy in Korea is of high quality, not medium or low quality.  
   
 
Respondent
Categories
Assessmen Criteria
Fairness %
Satisfaction %
(N)
Non-Voters
83.4
80.8
229
Winning Voters
93.2
95.8
663
Losing voters
70.3
64.2
572
Total
85.9
81.1
1,464
Table 4 Positive Assessments of the 2002 Presidential Election by Non-voters
and Voters
Source: 2003 East Asia Barometer survey conducted in Korea.
 
     
Scope of Positive
Assessments
Categories of Respondents
Non-voters %
Winning voters %
Losing Voters %
Total %
Little
12.7
9.3
16.6
9.7
Partial
10.5
5.6
24.3
13.7
Full
76.9
91.7
59.1
76.6
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Table 5 Overall Assessments of the 2002 Presidential Election by Non-voters
and Voters
Source: 2003 East Asia Barometer survey conducted in Korea.
 
     
 

The Quality of Liberal Democracy

How much progress has Korea made in moving beyond an electoral democracy into a liberal democracy? To address this question systematically, we examine the extent to which the current regime exhibits each of the five essential properties of liberal democracies discussed earlier, freedom, equality, the rule of law, accountability, and responsiveness.

Political Freedom

Regular free and fair elections with universal suffrage and several competing political parties do not attain to a liberal democracy.19 As Dahl20 points . . . . . . . /continued

 
     
  19. Karl, 2000.
20. Dabl, 1971:3.		  

 
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