South Korea is best-known for its economic development, democratic transition and consolidation, vibrant civil society, and emergence as a cultural powerhouse. The Oxford Handbook of South Korean Politics presents and analyses contemporary South Korean politics, bringing together domestic political, economic, social cultural, and demographic developments and putting them in the context of trends in fellow developed countries. The Handbook is divided into seven sections: introduction; core concepts; institutions, parties, elections, and voters; civil society; culture and media; public policy and policy-making; and the international arena. The overarching premise of the Handbook is that we have to move away from traditional understandings of South Korean politics that considered them to be static, focusing instead on how and why contemporary South Korea is a vibrant and dynamic democracy in which multiple groups and ideas are represented.
JeongHun Han, Professor of Korean Politics, Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University, Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Professor of International Relations, King's College London & KF-VUB Korea Chair, Brussels School of Governance, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, , Youngho Cho, Associate Professor of Political Science, Sogang University
JeongHun Han is Professor of Korean Politics at the Graduate School of International Studies and the Chair of the EU Center at Seoul National University. He has held visiting positions at Portland State University and Chulalongkorn University. Prof. Han is currently the editor of
Review of International and Area Studies and a regional editor of
Asian Journal of Political Science. His research focuses on institutional design in new democracies and electoral and legislative politics in South Korea, among others. His publications have appeared in
Contemporary Politics,
Journal of European Public Policy,
Korea Observer, and other journals.
Ramon Pacheco Pardo is Professor of International Relations at King's College London and KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He has held visiting positions at Korea University, the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and Melbourne University. Prof. Pacheco Pardo's research focuses on South Korean foreign policy, South Korean and East Asian political economy, and North Korean foreign policy. His publications include the books
Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop and
North Korea-US Relations from Kim Jong Il to Kim Jong Un, as well as articles with
Asia Europe Journal,
Global Governance,
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, and
New Political Economy, among others.
Youngho Cho is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Sogang University. He is currently the editor of the
Journal of Contemporary Politics (in Korean). His research focuses on Korean politics, democracy, political culture, elections, and state violence. His publications have appeared in
Political Studies,
Democratization, and
Asian Survey, among others.
