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South Korea has experienced democratic consolidation and deconsolidation

since the 1987 regime transition. In particular, the country had undergone
democratic deconsolidation under the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye
governments before the candlelight protest of 2016–2017, but South Korean
democracy rebounded afterwards. Figure 23.1 shows a historical trend of the

Varieties of Democracy (V-DEM) liberal democracy index since 1987. The V-DEM
liberal democracy index combines two aspects of democracy: electoral (suffrage,
elected officials, clean elections, and freedom of association and expression)
and liberal (equality before the law, individual liberties, and judicial and legislative

constraints on the executive). Thus, this index shows consolidation and
deconsolidation of liberal democracy at the regime level.

Figure 1 Consolidation and deconsolidation of South Korean democracy

Source: The Varieties of Democracy Institute

According to Figure 1, the historical trajectory of South Korean democracy has
gone through four phases since 1987: consolidation, persistence, deconsolidation,

and restoration. In the first phase, liberal democracy in South Korea continued to
consolidate from 1987 to 2000. Although President Roh Tae-woo was elected from
การอภิปราย the military groups, his government (1988–1992) did not block democratic transition
but institutionalized presidential and legislative elections. As the first civilian

president since Rhee Syngman (1948–1960), Kim Young-sam (1993–1997)
instituted civilian supremacy over the military by disbanding a military clique