\u003cp\u003eLike in many other states worldwide, democracy is in trouble in South Korea, entering a state of regressionin the past decade, barely thirty years after its emergence in 1987. The society that had ordinary citizensleading \"candlelight protests\" demanding the impeachment of Park Geun-Hye in 2016â17 has becomepolarized amid an upsurge of populism, driven by persistent structural inequalities, globalization, and therise of the information society.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe symptoms of democratic decline have been increasingly hard to miss: the demonization of politicalopponents, erosion of democratic norms, and the whittling away of the courts' independence. Perhapsmost disturbing is that this all took place under a government dominated by former pro-democracyactivists. Will the election victory of opposition leader Yoon Suk-Yeol end this democratic erosion, or willthe rift between South Korea's progressives and conservatives only deepen with the next administration?\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe contributors to this volume trace the sources of illiberalism in today's Korea; examine how politicalpolarization is plaguing its party system; discuss how civil society and the courts have become politicized;look at the roles of inequality, education, and social media in the country's democratic decline; andconsider how illiberalism has affected Korea's foreign policy.\u003c/p\u003e
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