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Figure 2. Trajectory of regime support in South Korea, 1996–2018
Source: World Values Survey

When one takes a close look at these trends, it is apparent that support for
democracy and rejection of strongman rule were prevalent among more than two-
thirds of South Koreans in 1996 and 2001. Moreover, rejection of military rule was

overwhelmingly high (over 95%) until 2010. However, waning support for
democracy and waxing demand for strongman rule started in the early 2000s and
escalated throughout the 2010s. Finally, about one in five South Koreans regarded
military rule as a good governance model, and there are only 3 percentage points

difference in support for democracy over strongman rule.

These results suggest a dramatic shift in public attachment to these three
regimes. During the 1990s when a series of democratic reforms were implemented
to inspire presidential popularity, democracy was predominantly preferred as a good

and desirable regime, and a majority of Koreans did not express nostalgia for the
past authoritarian rule, showing their resolve against it. These cultural factors
contributed to the dissolution of past authoritarian legacies and establishment of
newly installed democratic institutions.

However, although South Korean citizens have continued to practice
democratic institutions over the last decades, public confidence in democracy has
การอภิปราย failed to persist: Three in ten no longer accept democracy as a good governance

model. More worrisome is that an increasing number of the citizens have been

open to both strongman rule and military rule as good ways of governing South