Comparative Politics Study: Seoul, South Korea

I. Introduction On May 9th of this year, South Koreans will vote for their next president after the eventful and historic removal of former president Park Geun-Hye. In this tense time of uncertainty and polarization, the Republic of Korea is challenging its relatively young democratic institutions; driven by the prospect of both change and, paradoxically, return to fundamental traditionalist policies. It is under these opposing pressures that the strength of democracy in Korea is tested, and thus presents a need for a detailed analysis that synthesizes empirical representations of the current political climate and evaluation tools already put in place. More specifically, the purpose of this piece is to provide a perspective on Korea's position in the global democratic ranks and present either conflicting or agreeing opinions on these rankings drawn from interviews of Korean citizens. Not only will this be helpful as a specific case study in the highly generalized field of global

Introduction South Korea, along with other "Tiger Economies" Japan and Taiwan, is considered a “miracle economy” in the field of political science. Because of its overall prosperity and unusual path to becoming so (Lim 2016), this phenomenon is often referred to as the "Miracle of the Han River." Now, even amidst the impeachment of the former president of Korea, Park Geun Hye, South Korea is considered to be one of the most successful nations in Asia. Being the home to corporate superpowers such as Samsung, Hyundai, and the Korean Pop (K-Pop) industry, South Korea is the fifth largest exporter in the world ( Observatory of Economic Complexity ). The purpose of this research is to explore the rich literature on this subject and test hypotheses that explain this phenomenon in a real-world context. While I am not suggesting the existence of internal validity issues with the existing investigations of these theories, it is important for a student of political sci