Phenomenon of Regionalism in the Political Life of Republic of Korea and Its Infuence on Presidential and Parliament Election during the 6th Republic (1988-2017)

Present research studies the regionalism that is one of the main factors to affect political life in Republic of Korea. Particularly, it studies its origins, present state and its evolution throughout the 6th Republic period up to 2017. Since there are few studies about regionalism origins and development after the democratization process in late 1980, current study aims to state key factors of regionalism beginning and find out the potential of its influence on president and parliament elections in South Korea during military reigns and after democratization particularly. Specifically, the purpose of the study is to find out whether the regionalism effects on presidential and National Assembly elections in South Korea after the democratization in 1987. There are data analysis and historical analysis among methods implied to the study. As for preliminary results, our analysis reveals that Korean political parties’ programs and campaigns seem to be poor since the party leader’s hometown appears to be of more interest for voters than any other factors and this trend has grown rapidly after 1987 Presidential elections.