During the early years of South Korea’s transition to democracy, expanding popular rule and deepening individual rights went hand-in-hand. But Roh Moo Hyun’s presidency has exposed rifts between majority rule and constitutionalism that the country’s judiciary is struggling to bridge.
About the Authors
Hahm Chaihark
Hahm Chaihark is assistant professor in the Graduate School of International Studies at Yonsei University, where he also chairs the Korean Studies Program. He is coeditor (with Daniel A. Bell) of The Politics of Affective Relations: East Asia and Beyond (2004).
After a presidential corruption scandal sparked peaceful mass protests leading to the impeachment and removal of the incumbent, South Koreans went to the polls to choose her successor. Was this drama a window…
Democratization is never easy, smooth, or linear, but as Indonesia’s experience in building a multiparty and multiethnic democracy shows, it can succeed even under difficult and initially unpromising conditions.