State and Civil Society in South Korea's Democratic Consolidation: Is the Battle Really over?

Prolonged intensive conflict and confrontation between a repressive state and an oppositional civil society characterized South Korea's democratic transition from 1985 to 1987. The Korean experiment with democracy1 started with a series of relaxation measures by the ruling authoritarian regime in late 1983 and early 1984. Unlike some of the classic cases belonging to the third wave of global democratization, political liberalization in South Korea was not prompted by a fatal split between hardliners and softliners within the power bloc.2 Instead, the main impetus came from the authoritarian regime's overconfidence about its legitimacy and stability.3 The direct consequence of the 1983-84 political liberalization was a resurrec-