Regional Voting in New Democracies: The Case of South Korea from a Comparative Perspective

Regional voting is regarded as the biggest obstacle to the consolidation of democracy. Increased communication and the immigration of the rural population into the urban area diluted an old cleavage between city and village. This sounds very convincing since dealignment preceded the rise of ethnoregional voting in Western democracies as well. Even under the Chun government, which has paid more attention to industrial and urban problems, rural areas have been the mainstay of political support for the ruling party. It is one of the many ironies of South Korean democracy that assurance of electoral success in the rural areas has been an important condition for the party in power to impement measures that enable meaningful political competition, the key element in political democracy. Democratization is one of the most frequently cited causes for ethnoregional conflict, especially in new democracies. The thesis of democratization states that under a dictatorial government, either Communist or authoritarian, ethnic, religious, and regional divisions are suppressed.