Democratic Performance and Park Chung-hee Nostalgia in Korean Democracy

Why, a quarter century after democratization, are Korean citizens so nostalgic about the former authoritarian Park Chung-hee government? What are the implications of this support for Korea’s democratic deepening? To answer these questions, I offer empirical analyses of selected data from the Korea Democracy Barometer 2010 survey that confirm the relevance of two dimensions of political support to authoritarian nostalgia in Korea: the life biography model and the economic performance model at the system level. The results suggest a double-sided phenomenon: on the one hand, nostalgia based on a retrospective collective memory; on the other, citizens’ critical view of the performance deficits of post-Park democratic governments in dealing with inequality in Korean society. As the findings elucidate, in spite of the challenges they face, emergent democratic governments must perform more effectively if they are to win citizens’ support.