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The Onset of the Post-Cold War Era and the Change of Korean Politics

  • The Journal of Northeast Asia Research
  • Abbr : NEA
  • 2013, 28(2), pp.148-183
  • DOI : 10.18013/jnar.2013.28.2.005
  • Publisher : The Institute for Northeast Asia Research
  • Research Area : Social Science > Political Science > International Politics > International Relations / Cooperation

Cho, Jungkwan 1

1전남대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses how the coming of the Post-Cold War era in the 1990s influenced Korean politics, with particular focus on political parties, electoral politics and political elites. The end of the Cold War provided apt justification for the 1990 ‘three-party-merger’ and facilitated the adaptation of formerly authoritarian regime elites to democratic party politics. It also helped the creation of both Minjungdang(People’s Party) and Tongilgukmindang(Unification Nation’s Party), which were not able to overcome the existing regionalistic party system. Democratic reform by the Kim Young Sam Government was assisted by the post-Cold War setting that minimized the otherwise strong resistance from the formerly authoritarian leaders. The change of governmental power by Kim Dae Jung, which consolidated Korea’s electoral democracy, was possible both by the preceding elite change and by the alteration of the mentality of the elite and the masses, which was caused in part by the post-Cold War setting.

Citation status

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