• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.79-115
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• 2021

Voters' negative evaluations of government performance lower their trust in government, which functions as the reward and punishment for the government. Trust in government thus serves to promote political accountability of the representative government. However, voters build their confidence toward the party government where the ruling party is responsible for the performance. Considering this partisan nature, we empirically examine that the influence of voters' performance evaluations on governmental trust is conditional on their party identifications. While higher perceptions of political/social conflict and increasing negative evaluations of government policies and economic performance are associated with the lower level of confidence in government, the relationship is contrasted between different party identifiers. For supporters of the ruling party in 2020, the negative evaluations of government performance are not likely to reduce trust in government a lot. On the contrary, those who identify with the main opposition party show the most prominent effect of negative evaluations on their distrust in government. This study demonstrates that trust in government is affected by voters' partisan preferences, not entirely by evaluations of government performance. Such a distortion of the reward and sanction function of governmental trust might lead to the weakening of the accountability mechanism in representative democracy.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.10 no.10
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• pp.274-285
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• 2010

In the United States, a marked emphasis on personal achievement has been among enduring values characterizing American culture from the beginning of the republic. Particularly, Americans have attached great value to the spirit of self-reliance in striving for personal achievement. However, there have been few empirical studies focusing on the effects of Americans' self-reliant spirit on American electoral politics. Through a field experimentation focusing on the voters of Portage County in Ohio, this study examined the effects of Americans' self-reliant spirit on the evaluations of presidential candidates' personal traits, which constitute the candidates' character. The results of this study demonstrated that American voters evaluated those presidential candidates who were described as self-reliant significantly more favorably than the presidential candidates who were not so described, for 8 out of the 11 personal traits. The findings provide meaningful evidence for ascertaining the potential and legitimacy of the influences of the spirit of self-reliance, in the American society including electoral politics.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.27-43
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• 2009

A ban on political podcasting during the General Elections 2006 in Singapore was justified by the Singaporean government on the grounds that the new medium had a greater power to influence voters than traditional modes of political discourse. A between-subjects controlled experiment was conducted to test whether podcasts of political speeches had a greater power to influence voters' evaluations of political candidates and likelihood of voting for them than online text-based transcripts of the same speeches. The study also examined whether mere exposure to political speeches online, irrespective of the modality, had an effect on voters' more general political preferences, i.e. the likelihood of support and voting for the opposition. The findings suggest that political podcasts were no more persuasive than text-based websites and that the effects on political preferences, if any, were likely due the exposure to political content online, not because of the nature of the medium. The implications of the findings are discussed.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.135-170
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• 2018

The recent success of populist parties and candidates in the US and European countries leads to a massive amount of empirical research on populism, a deviant form of representative democracy. Much ink has been spilled to define populism and to identify the causes of its rise and continued success in democratic political system. However, little is known about populist attitudes of individual voters. Using a large-scale online survey fielded in the context of the South Korean presidential election in 2017, this study examines (1) what determines populist attitudes of South Korean voters and (2) how populist attitudes are associated with evaluations of political parties, candidates, and political issues. Statistical analysis reveals that people high on populism are more likely to support an underdog left-wing political party and its presidential candidate, and are less likely to support policies implemented or proposed under the auspices of the Park Geun-hye administration. These findings do not necessarily suggest the inherent affinity between populism and left-wing ideology; rather, it implies populist attitudes happened to appear in 2017, in reactions to lack of confidence in the previous government.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.25-46
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• 2010

In this research the current situations of libraries of 119 rural elementary schools are examined. These schools are the applicants for the 'Campaign for Libraries for Rural Schools' sponsored by Chosun Ilbo in 2009. Through the content analysis of their applications, the factors of facilities, collection, and environment are described. One the surface, most of these applicants look fine with the current size of collection and annual additions. They, however, commonly document the extremely poor conditions of facilities, unbalanced and low quality of books, lack of financial support, and cultural isolation. Even though they are not the typical rural school libraries, it seems urgent to improve their inferior conditions that any library statistics never shows in numbers. In this research, it is considered significant to make local governments and offices of education change their attitude toward rural school libraries and increase their financial support to them. The suggestions are as follows: First, let them know that school library policies concern the voters in communities; Second, use the visibility of various authoritative library assessments and awards; Third, strengthen the qualitative aspect of library evaluations.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.147-177
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• 2017

Although a number of empirical studies found that political ideology plays a significant role in Korean elections, they entirely rely on cross-sectional data analysis. In contrast to previous research, this study investigates the effects of ideology in the 2012 Korean presidential election through standard panel data analysis. Specifically, using "EAI Panel Study, 2012", the effects of ideology on both candidate evaluation and vote choice were examined via fixed effects, random effects, and pooled regression analysis. And the results from applying the two most popular models of ideological voting, the proximity model and the directional change model were also compared. The results show that candidate evaluations and vote choice during the election (April, 2012- December, 2012) were significantly influenced by the ideological difference between voters and candidates, independent from partisanship and other standard socio-demographic factors. And this ideological voting during the election seems better captured by the directional change model than by the proximity model.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.79-106
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• 2019

Local governments within the boundaries of a state need increasing flexibility to satisfy diverse economic, social, and environmental goals in their particular geographical setting. However, many candidates in the local election in South Korea tend to see local politics as an extension of national-level politics. In particular, this paper mainly deals with how the voters' evaluation of a president's performance has influenced subnational elections in South Korea. Our analysis suggests that the fate of candidates in subnational elections is shaped by the performance of the incumbent president in both economic development and foreign affairs.