Political Ideology and Dynamics of Protestors in South Korea: In Respect of the Degree of Ideology and the Ideological Distance from the Incumbent Government (2022.02)
- Author : Hyun-Jin Cha
- Publication : Oughtopia
- Publisher : Kyung Hee Institute for Human Society
- Volume : 36(3)
- Date : February, 2022
Abstract: This paper aims to analyze how protest participants’ characteristics in South Korea have changed since 2004. This research assesses a degree of political ideology and ideological distances from the incumbent government as main explanatory variables. To be specific, the paper proposes that the probability of participating in protests increases as a degree of political ideology becomes higher. Also, the farther ideological distances between an individual’s political ideology and the incumbent government’s ideological orientations are, the more likely the individual will participate in protests. Data from the 2004, 2009, 2014, and 2018 Korean General Social Survey (KGSS) substantiated that the degree of ideology affected likelihood to participate in protests more than the direction of the ideology would. Additionally, the empirical results demonstrated that the ideological distance between an individual and the incumbent government affected the individual’s participation in recent protests in South Korea.