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Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea

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Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2006 Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea Junghyoun Kim University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Kim, Junghyoun, "Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2006. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/1812 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Junghyoun Kim entitled "Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Political Science. Yang Zhong, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Robert B. Cunningham, David L. Feldman, David J. Houston, Rachelle M. Jacobs Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Junghyoun Kim entitled “Religion and Political Attitudes in South Korea.” I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Political Science. Yang Zhong Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Robert B. Cunningham David L. Feldman David J. Houston Rachelle M. Jacobs Accepted for the Council: Anne Mayhew Vice Chancellor and Dean of Graduate Studies (Original signatures are on file with official student records) RELIGION AND POLITICAL ATTITUDES IN SOUTH KOREA A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Junghyoun Kim May 2006 Copyright ⓒ 2006 by Junghyoun Kim All rights reserved. ii Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my loving parents Kibong Kim and Oknyu Hwang, my wonderful wife Mijung Park, my loving children Mark and Rachel Kim, my academic advisor and confidant Dr. Yang Zhong, and all of whom have been with me since the beginning of this intellectual journey. iii Acknowledgements I wish to thank all those who helped me to complete my Doctor of Philosophy degree in Political Science. I would like to thank my dissertation director, advisor, and mentor Dr. Zhong for his insight, recommendations, and countless attention throughout these five years. I would like to thank my dissertation committee members: Dr. Feldman, Dr. Cunningham, Dr. Houston, and Dr. Jacobs for their time and considering of my work. I deeply appreciate their incessant encouragement, support, humanitarian insights and penetrating criticism. iv Abstract In order to shed some light on how religion affects the consolidating democracy in South Korea, this research focuses on the relationship between individual’s religiosity and their political attitudes, particularly: (1) political tolerance, which is considered a prerequisite for democratic consolidation, and (2) political ideology, which enables us to look at the impact of religion on people’s political behavior. In terms of the research design, this research uses a quasi-experimental design, a survey design for hypothesis testing using statistical procedures (sample size = 994, sample frame = all adults over 20 years old who live in Seoul, the capital of South Korea). In order to analyze a numeric data, Generalized Least Estimation is applied with two types of data transformation (Orthogonalized Data Transformation and Univariate Missing Data Imputation). In relation to the first dependent variable (people’s level of political tolerance), it is confirmed that Buddhists are more likely to be tolerant than Protestants in Korea, and Protestants have the lowest level of political tolerance among the three popular religious groups (Catholicism, Buddhism, and Protestantism). In terms of the culture wars thesis, it is confirmed that religious traditionalists have lower levels of political tolerance than v religious modernists. Thus, religious traditionalists have a negative impact on democratic consolidation due to their low levels of political tolerance. In relation to the second dependent variable (people’s political ideology), it is confirmed that Catholics are more likely to be liberal than other religious groups in Korea, and Protestants are more likely to be conservative than other religious groups due to the theological doctrines of Protestantism (evangelicalism and theological inerrancy). Moreover, the data analysis confirms that Buddhists in Korea are more likely to be conservatives than Catholics. Based on these findings, it is assumed that negotiating between religious groups’ political interests or policy preferences will be very difficult, and overcoming this difficulty will be a crucial factor in the process of Korean democratic consolidation. Finally, in order to suggest a better model for investigating the relationship between religion and politics, this research develops a new model, which enables us to compare the explanatory powers of the two dominant theories (the ethnoreligious and the culture wars theses). Given this new model, we can examine the impact of dynamic characteristics of religion (belonging, behaving, and believing) on politics. vi Table of Contents Chapter I: Introduction to Religion and Politics in South Korea………………………..….1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….1 The Role of Religion in Korean Democratization…………………………………….….4 Religious Factors in Micro-Level Analysis of Political Behavior………….…………..15 Chapter II: Methods for Inquiry………..……………………………………………………..24 Individuals’ Religiosity and Politics in South Korea…………………………………..24 Two Models for Investigating the Relationship between Religiosity and Politics (“Ethnoreligious” versus “Culture Wars” Theses)……………………………………..30 Statistical Models to Test both Ethnoreligious and Culture Wars Models…………..35 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………..42 Chpater III: A Quasi-Experimental Design for the Inquiry……………...………………….43 Quantitative Method to Study Religion and Politics…………………………………..43 Principles and Practices for Designing a Survey……………………………………..45 Validity and Reliability of the Survey Design…………………………………………..52 Measuring Three Dimensions of Peoples’ Religiosity………………………………..59 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………..65 Chapter IV: Hypotheses of Political Tolerance and Religiosity………………………...….67 Political Tolerance and Democracy……………………………………………………..67 Political Tolerance and Individual’s Religiosity………………………………………...69 Operational Definition of Political Tolerance as a Dependent Variable……………..77 Measuring Religiosity as Independent Variable……………………………………….82 Control Variables………………………………………………………………………….87 Hypotheses for The Relationship between Individual’s Religiosity and Political To- lerance……………………………………………………………………………………..93 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………..95 vii Chapater V: Data Analysis of Political Tolerance……….…………………………………97 Variances of the Parameters (Variables)……………………………………………...97 Gauss-Markov Theory Tests and Data Transformation……………………………...99 Hypotheses Testing: Ethnoreligious Thesis…………………………………………..105 Hypotheses Testing: The Culture Wars Thesis……………………………...……….111 Comparison of Two Theses and a Better Way of Investigation………………...….119 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………125 Chapter VI: Hypotheses for Political Ideology and Religiosity…………………………..127 Political Ideology in South Korea……………………………………………………...127 Political Culture as an Adhesive Combining Ideology and Religion……………….130 Measuring Political Ideology as a Dependent Variable in South Korea…………..134 Traditional Conservatism vs. Modern Liberalism in Contemporary Korea………..142 The Relations between Individuals’ Religiosity and Political Ideology: Ethnoreligious Vs. Culture Wars Thesis……………..………………………………………………...146 Control Variables (Sociodemographic Variables)……………………………………160 Hypotheses for the Relationship Between Individual’s Religiosity and Political Ideology……………………………….………………………………………………….161 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………163 Chapter VII: Data Analysis of Political Ideology…………………………………………..165 Measuring and Imputation of Dependent Variable (Political Ideology)……………165 Hypotheses Testing: Ethnoreligious Thesis…………………………………………..177 Hypotheses Testing: The Culture Wars Thesis………………………………………191 Comparison of Two Theses and a Better Way of Investigation…………………….198 Summary…………………………………………………………………………………202 Chapter VIII: Conclusions..……………………………………………………………...…..205 List of Bibliography……………………………………………………………………...……213 Appendix…………...………………………………………………………………………….241 Vita.………………………………………………………………………………………….…250 viii List of Tables Table 3-1 Validity Tests for a Survey Data……………………………………………….....58 Table 4-1 Factor Analysis for Measuring Political Tolerance Levels……………………..80 Table 4-2 t-Test for Mean Difference Among Different Religious Groups…………….....84
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