The Decline of Political Participation in Korea between 2000 and 2011

Who votes? Who participates in political activities in the Republic of Korea (hereafter Korea)? And why? If citizen participation is at the heart of democracy, a robust democracy at its core must have its citizens regularly exercising their political right to choose their government leaders. However, voting alone does not safeguard democracies. While periodic elections help to ensure responsiveness of the elected official to the voters — vertical accountability — as history has shown, some of the most authoritarian states have exhibited high levels of voter turnout. Therefore, citizens must go beyond the act of voting. They must also participate in a wide range of political and civil society activities to help ensure an appropriate system of checks and balances — horizontal accountability — thereby limiting the power of government to a particular sphere of life called politics.