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from retreat. However, what is not clear is whether it buttresses the legitimacy of

democracy among ordinary citizens. While politicians, citizens, and scholars are
proud of the candlelight protest and its contribution to South Korean democracy,
little is known about how the cultural foundation for democracy has changed over
the last decades. Although a growing proportion of citizens around the world tend

to withdraw support for democracy and prefer its authoritarian alternatives,
few studies have historically examined whether South Korean citizens depart from
this global trend or take part in the deconsolidation of their democracy.

Analyzing the five waves of the World Values Survey from 1996 to 2018,

I show that support for democracy has steadily eroded and leanings toward
nondemocratic alternatives have increased among South Korean citizens.
This downward trend did not stop even after the candlelight protest but has
continued. These results suggest that the candlelight protest halted the democratic

deconsolidation of the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye governments but such
democratic rebound is likely to be a temporary moment because citizens’
commitment to democracy has cooled. Furthermore, the results also indicate that
the four decades of democratic practices have failed to inculcate democracy in the

minds of Korean citizens and, rather, have contributed to disillusionment about
democracy. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that deconsolidation of Korean
democracy has already started and will be an enduring phenomenon.

2. CONSOLIDATION AND DECONSOLIDATION OF
SOUTH KOREAN DEMOCRACY

Democratic consolidation and deconsolidation are useful concepts because
not all countries passing through regime transition reach a stable democracy.
Indeed, only a small proportion of transitioning countries have been

consolidated over the last two centuries; most of them have rejected one form of
authoritarianism and ended up with another. Because democratic consolidation is not
a one-way street, it is possible for transitioning countries to revert to
authoritarianism and for consolidated democracies to deconsolidate. Many of

the new democracies have recently experienced democratic deconsolidation in which
the quality of democracy deteriorates and authoritarian governance emerges even in การอภิปราย
the presence of democratic institutions.