ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This paper examines which political theory and methodology could take an better explanation of Korean democratization, and how it could contribute to theorizing from Korea democratic experience. Most of the political process researches including political parties and elections in Korea has been in line of the theory-confirming research focused on congruence between the western based theory and Korean political phenomenon. There are the following limitations of Korean political analysis in the western basis approach (1) the overlooking on the fact that a political theory is the cumulative result of numerous phenomena (2) the problem of deductive reasoning in theory (3) the problem of considering Korean experience as a deviant case (4) the uniformed research design by mainly regression analysis of quantitative method. I suggest that our theory for explaining and predicting Korean political democratization should take beyond the western- centrism on the basis of our reality. It is also needed to implement the theory-informing research including deviant case and to explore new variables. Furthermore, this research strategy could be a more comprehensive research model linking pre-democratic stage before 1987 with post-democratic one after 1987.

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