Description

This project examines the continued weakness of political parties in democratized Korea as manifested in organizational instability, non-programmatic competition, and public disparage of party politics. Instead of following the traditional explanations that emphasize citizens’ political preference or institutional rules, this study investigates the development of party politics as situated in interaction with a strong state and active pro-democracy movements. The historical legacies and social dynamics in contemporary Korea have created unique conditions for political parties to oscillate between counter-institutional politics (the streets) and electoral politics (the National Assembly), ultimately undermining the path for effective party politics.

Yoonkyung Lee is associate professor in Sociology and Asian Studies at the State University of New York in Binghamton. Trained as a political scientist (Duke University 2006), she works on labor politics, political economy, and democratic institutions in East Asia. She is the author of Militants or Partisans: Labor Unions and Democratic Politics in Korea and Taiwan (Stanford University Press 2011) and her research appeared in journals such as Globalizations, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Studies in Comparative International Development, Asian Survey, Critical Asian Studies, Korea Observer, Taiwanese Sociology, and Education about Asia. Her writings are also published in edited volumes including Working Through the Past: Labor and Authoritarian Legacies in Comparative Perspective (edited by Teri Caraway et al., Cornell University Press, 2015), Oxford Bibliographies: Political Science (edited by Sandy Maisel, (Oxford University Press, 2015), New Challenges for Maturing Democracies in Korea and Taiwan (edited by Larry Diamond and Gi-Wook Shin, Stanford University Press, 2014), and Contemporary South Korean Reader: A Critical Perspective (edited by Hee-Yeon Cho et al., Routledge, 2012).