Patterns of Voting Choices and the Candlelight Protest Participation in 2016-17 (2022.03)
- Author : Hyun-Jin Cha
- Publication : The Journal of Asiatic Studies
- Publisher : The Korean Criminal Law Association
- Volume : 65(1)
- Date : March, 2022
Abstract: This paper aims to identify the characteristic of candlelight protest participants in 2016-17. This research argues that voter’s voting frequency and patterns of voting choices affect the probability of participating in the 2016-17 candlelight protests. First, the probability of participating in the candlelight protests increases as an individual’s voting frequency becomes higher. This is because protesting and voting are in a complementary relationship and the goals of the candlelight protests deal with the important political issue. Second, a voter type which is classified by an individual’s voting consistency and a supporting party’s political ideology affects the likelihood to participate in the candlelight protest. A voter’s supporting party affects whether or not the voter is motivated to participate in a candlelight protest, and the consistency of voting choices affects how intensive the voter’s motivation for the protest participation will be. Thus, core liberal voters are most likely to participate in the candlelight protest while core conservative voters are the least likely to protest. Swing voters are found in the middle, more likely to participate than core conservative voters would, and less likely to participate than core liberals would. The empirical results confirmed the patterns of voters’ voting choices affect candlelight protest participation in 2016-17. This research tries to connect electoral studies with contentious politics by suggesting voting choices in consecutive elections as the characteristics of the candlelight protestors. In addition, the results show that the candlelight protest participants still reflect the characteristics of partisanship.