An election year in South Korea witnessed a rise in deep discontent and distrust with the current political system that failed to address a growing demand for rebalancing in both domestic and foreign policies. Conservative successes led by Park Geun-hye in two elections demonstrate that South Korean voters do not support the opposition’s promise for radical reform. But the most significant message of the 2012 elections was that existing party politics could not be sustained without some fundamental political reforms, expressed by the “Ahn syndrome” yearning for new politics.

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The new government led by President Park Geun-hye faced challenges that the previous government had largely failed to address: rising income disparity, stagnant growth, political reform, and foreign policy issues, including a nuclear North Korea and an assertive Japan. Park’s foreign policy scored some successes while her old-style management of political affairs supported by the old guard caused a prolonged political stalemate with the opposition party.

Korea's political science has been initiated and developed under the influence of the United States. It is related to the intention of the US to build a liberal democratic state in the southern part of the Korean peninsula against the Soviet Union-styled communism. However, as the bitter experience of the Korean War created a very narrow ideological space in Korean politics, there were considerable ideological constraints. Moreover, the authoritarian military regime, often took advantage of anti-communism ideology as a cause to justify their rules. All these served as a set of constraints imposed on the study of political science. Korea's political scientists tried to respond to the political demands of the day despite the politically oppressive atmosphere. Democratization and the end of the Cold War provided political scientists a very favorable condition. Political scientists did not need to fear about visible and invisible obstacles on their research any longer. That is, a ‘normal’ situation has finally come to Korea's political studies. Under such political circumstances, political science could widen its scope. Studies of politics became more institutionalized and diversified. Political science in post-democratization era deals with not only political institutions, political processes, and political ideology, but also newly emerging political phenomena such as Internet politics, immigration, ethnic minorities, welfare reform, globalization and social harmony, etc. Based on such academic achievement, it is time that Korea's political science has the task to make theoretical contributions to outside world from the Korea's own experiences.

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