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This study aims to assess deconsolidation of South Korean democracy from

the perspective of ordinary citizens. By tracking citizens’ support for democracy and
authoritarian alternatives for the last two decades, this study sheds fresh light on
the conditions and prospects for South Korean democracy.

3. RELEVANCE AND CONCEPTUALISATION OF

DEMOCRATIC SUPPORT

To stabilise and advance, democracy requires democrats. In other words,
democracy requires institutions as well as cultural components which make these
institutions work. These cultural components include social capital, liberal values,

tolerance, mutual trust, post materialism, and belief in rule of law. Yet, one is
clearly more fundamental than the rest in new democracies: public attitudes toward
the legitimacy of democracy, such that citizens support democracy and reject its
authoritarian alternatives (Rose et al. 1998; Svolik 2013).

There are reasons why public support for democracy is critically important in
the dynamic politics of democratic transition and consolidation. Theoretically, unlike
authoritarian forms of government, modern democracy allows citizens as
the fundamental judges to elect its leaders and influence directions of national

policies. Practically, new democracies of the non-Western world lack legacies and
traditions of liberal and democratic politics and, thus, they suffer from a shortage of
political capital to promote democratic change. In this unfavourable and uncertain
environment, citizens’ support for democracy constitutes the most valuable political

capital that pro-democracy politicians can utilise to complete democratic transition
and further democratic consolidation. On the contrary, when a substantial number of
citizens are discontented with democratic politics and withdraw support for
democracy, authoritarian forces are likely to grow and eventually initiate actions for

democratic deconsolidation and backsliding (Svolik 2013). Accordingly, most scholars
agree that citizens’ support for democracy helps prevent democratic backsliding and
deconsolidation (Dahl 1998; Foa and Mounk 2016; Rose et al. 1998).

What constitutes support for democracy and how does one measure it?

Conceptually, support for democracy is a dynamic and sequential phenomenon with
multiple dimensions and levels. Following Almond and Verba’s tripartite model of การอภิปราย
civic culture (1963), democratic support has multiple dimensions including affective