The Citizens' Movement in Korea

Exploring the social and political background of the citizens movement and its trajectory in the 1990s, this paper analyzes why the citizens movement became so influential in Korea in the 1990s. This paper shows that the citizens movement as a new type of social movement appeared during the period of democratic transition in response to both the collapse of Eastern European state socialism and the continuation of authoritarian regimes, despite the success of the struggle for democracy in Korea. This paper also points out that contentious politics was an outcome of the regime change that took place in 1997, culminating in the impeachment of the president in 2004, which contributed to the formation of conservative citizens movement organizations. According to this papers argument, like political society, civil society is neither homogeneous nor monolithic but is divided or fragmented in terms of political ideology and interests. KCI Citation Count: 5