We use spatial econometrics on a unique data set covering 229 Korean regions to analyze the outcome of Korea’s 2017 presidential election. We see strong statistical evidence of spatial correlation, suggesting that neighboring regions vote similarly, which is in accord with findings in the international context. Our findings are distinct in that we see little evidence that Korea’s 2017 outcome was driven by the economic disparities between the southeast and the southwest, a highly sensitive political issue in the country. Voters’ region of origin and age are the two most important factors in vote choice, irrespective of the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of their regions.

It is widely predicted that East Asia’s conservative governments will lose political power for managing socioeconomic crises under neoliberal globalization and find no way out of their legitimacy problem. However, Korea’s and Japan’s conservative governments have recently constructed a new model of crisis management—compassionate paternalism—in a highly discretionary manner.

Korea’s migrants have diversified in recent decades. This special section gathers articles that address this development by examining issues of class as an analytical lens in addition to ethnicity and citizenship, and also by considering the contributions of migrants from both human and social capital perspectives. By doing so, we aim to provide a better understanding of the varied experiences, realities, and complexities of Korea’s increasingly diverse migrant groups.

This article investigates the capacity and willingness of women from English-speaking countries, married to Korean men, to integrate into South Korean society, via examination of the expression of national identity in everyday life and the negotiation of relationships across socio-cultural boundaries.

This study examines international students in Korea as skilled labor migrants, specifically for small and medium-sized enterprises. It suggests that strengthening the study–work pathway as in other advanced countries represents a viable, future-oriented strategy in addressing the complications associated with hiring foreigners from abroad.

South Korea faces a shortage of highly skilled labor, but with a low tolerance for diversity, it lags behind in its global competitiveness to retain mobile skilled talent. Using data on foreign students and professionals, we demonstrate the potential of skilled migrants as both human and social capital for Korea and suggest that the country is poised to adopt a study-bridge-work framework to compensate for its competitive weaknesses.

This study takes a cultural approach to examine the unstable and contentious nature of Korean democracy. Analyzing an original nationwide survey conducted in 2015, we find that the democratic and participatory culture of the Korean people underlies Korean democracy. This finding suggests substantial tension between the participatory orientation of the public and Korean representative democracy.

Due to an abrupt change in legal adjudication, Korean companies might experience a significant rise in wage costs unless preemptive policy measures reduce the legal uncertainty in a coordinated manner. The situation in Korea is compared to that of Japan, with a similar statutory structure for employee wages and allowances.

The North Korean state under a young and unproven leader faces severe challenges. The regime will not change because of a leadership transition or because of the West’s hope of reform. It could crack because its ideology is at odds with the country’s incremental societal change.

As information cues grow diverse, the public becomes better equipped with the information necessary to independently judge external crises, and thus their support for the president is less likely to be influenced by elite discourse. Our analysis of South Korean presidential popularity (1993–2008) confirms this expectation.

This paper explains the difference between Korea’s vocal movements and feeble parties versus Taiwan’s stable parties and dependent movements from the political dynamics formed under the authoritarian state. Taiwan’s party-based authoritarianism provided ground for party development but not for independent social movements. Korea’s personal dictatorship was inimical to party development but engendered a contentious movement sector.

This paper explores the partisan effects of voter turnout in 12 Korean elections. We argue theoretically and show empirically that hypothetical increases in turnout generate benefits for left-wing or minor parties, rather than right-wing or major parties. Complete voter turnout may have changed the actual electoral results in close elections.

The present study examines the ingredients of strategic state intervention in growth driven by special economic zones (SEZs). Analyzing the experiences of Taiwan, South Korea, and India, the research reveals that essential components of a strategic SEZ policy include the spirit of experimentation with strategic policy making informed by a medium- to long-term vision, as well as a strong commitment, pragmatic approach, dynamic learning, and institution-building.

This paper explores the growing trend in income inequality in Korea and Taiwan. The two recent East Asian democracies have witnessed rising inequality since the 1990s but with cross-national differences. We find that market inequality is higher in Taiwan than in Korea, yet the Taiwan government’s efforts to reduce this disparity are stronger than similar moves in Korea. By applying the logic of economic, social, and political effects, we find both similar trends and divergent paths in the politics of inequality in the two countries.

This article examines the impact of Korean civil society on politics since democratization. Weak mediating institutions prevent the systematic inclusion of societal actors in the policymaking process, pitting an increasingly strengthened civil society against the state. Consequently, Korean state-society relations continue to remain contentious, posing challenges to democratic governance.

Private equity funds, particularly those headquartered in the U.S., have come under heavy attack internationally from civil society and regulators. At the same time, locally owned private equity funds have unexpectedly appeared in significant numbers across emerging markets. The analysis in this paper illustrates how actors that are only notionally domestic are introducing the neoliberal private equity model into Asian countries, particularly China and Korea.

This paper looks at how recent Japanese prime ministers have counterintuitively limited political control over the bureaucracy. It uses conflicts at the foreign and defense ministries to illustrate how the presence of multiple principals alters principal-agent theory and its implications for the politician-bureaucrat relationship. This study integrates the Japanese case into comparative scholarship on Taiwan and Korea.

This paper analyzes the Yasukuni problem and reports the different views existing among as well as within major political parties in Japan. The Yasukuni issue should be understood in the context of the rise of conservative nationalism in Japanese politics and Japan's effort to become a normal nation-state.

South Korea's growth as an outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) player is an example of developing countries becoming major foreign investors. China has become the largest destination for Korean OFDI, which appears to complement Seoul's exports to China.

Against existing explanations based on economic structural and organizational differences, this paper contends that patterns of union activism in newly democratized polities are shaped by unions' interaction with political institutions and actors, particularly political parties. Unions' propensity for militant mobilization or accommodation is molded by the permissiveness of political institutions and electoral incentives for partisan alliances.