ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This paper aims to overcome the limitations of macro-level approaches focusing on party system or the stability of the democratic system in the literature on political cleavage research. It attempts to identify the implications of political cleavage at the micro-level, focusing on the individual’s party support, political ideology, and policy preferences by taking advantage of nationally representative voter survey collected every five years from 2005 to 2015. Specifically, the study empirically identified changes in the regional cleavage that has defined Korean politics as the full-cleavage, the concept of which is developed by Bartolini and Mair and later elaborated on by Deegan-Krause. The study finds that the regional cleavage, which has defined Korean politics as the only full cleavage after democratization, has been basically maintained in terms of political attitudes and identity. Honam natives are more likely to consider themselves more progressive than Youngnam natives. Honam and Youngnam natives strongly prefer the party that has been exclusively supported in each region. In addition, they each strongly support policies—such as policies toward North Korea—that have been deeply linked to their regional party. However, the most recent survey shows that support for regional parties is weaker than before and political preferences begins to diverge among Daegu/Kyungpook and Busan/Ulsan/Kyungnam natives. We may infer that the regional cleavage as full cleavage is likely to evolve based on new structure and institution. The relatively low cross-pressure scores and solid policy preferences associated regional party among Honam and Daegu/Kyungpook natives seem to support this conjecture.

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