Ji Yeon (Jean) Hong is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the political economy of authoritarianism, with particular attention to East Asia. She has various ongoing research projects related to the legacy of the authoritarian past, the long-term impact of political violence, and the determinants of elite behavior and government policies under authoritarianism.
Title: Shadow of Authoritarian Patronage: Village Leaders and Elections in Democratizing South Korea
Authors: Ji Yeon Hong, Sunkyoung Park, and Hyunjoo Yang
Abstract: This paper investigates the enduring influence of authoritarian patronage between the dictatorial regime and rural voters on subsequent elections in both authoritarian and democratic settings. We argue that the persistence of authoritarian patronage depends on rural voters’ ability to maintain strong trust in the authoritarian successor party’s reciprocity for their loyalty. Using original data on village leaders trained under the New Village Movement, a government-led rural development initiative in the 1970s, we show that areas with higher concentrations of these leaders were more likely to support the ruling party in subsequent legislative elections. This pattern held through the authoritarian elections of the 1980s under a new dictatorship. Following South Korea’s transition to democracy in 1987, the influence of patronage initially diminished but later resurged as the authoritarian successor party successfully rebranded itself through a strategic party merger. Nevertheless, as democracy became more consolidated and neoliberal globalization marginalized the agricultural sector, the effect of authoritarian patronage eventually faded. Our findings suggest that the legacy of an authoritarian regime is not merely an outcome of a strong dictatorship but is also significantly influenced by the evolving political and economic environment in a new democracy.
