hankyoreh

College students in their 20s were the most liberal population group in South Korea, while the self-employed in their 50s who were born in the northern part of South Korea and living in Kangwon Province were most conservative, a recent survey showed.

According to the survey, one out of four people in their 20s said that they are liberal, and nearly one out of two in their 50s said that they are conservative. High-income earners tended to be conservative and low-income brackets represented liberals, with the mid-income makers consisting mostly of centrists, the survey showed.

By profession, students were the most liberal group, with one out of four saying so, while more than one out of five self-employed people said they are conservative. Of note is that the usual liberal tendency among white- and blue-collar workers has given its ground to conservatives, according to the survey.

Seoul was the most liberal region in South Korea, with more than one out of five saying they were left of center. Kangwon Province, located near the border with North Korea, had more conservatives than other provinces.

Those born in the northern part of South Korea and in Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province, were most conservative, while those from Seoul and Gwangju, Jeolla Province, were more liberal than other areas in the country, the survey showed.

Method of survey

The survey, which is jointly conducted by the Hankyoreh and the Korean Social Science Data Center every two years, employs differentiated methods in determining ideological trends in South Korea.

Unlike other similar polls, the survey put more emphasis on consistency in responses, which we believe is the most important yardstick by which to evaluate a person's ideology.

For instance, if a person shows a mixed response between "liberal" and "conservative" on government polices, he is labeled as a "centrist" under conventional surveys. According to the Hankyoreh's survey, however, the person is considered "undecided," as his responses encompass both liberal and conservative viewpoints.

The survey also based its results on two questions regarding the government's policy for the underprivileged and national security, with the belief that the responses to those questions would more accurately reveal a person's ideological trend.

The survey is carried out periodically in order to provide an idea of the ideological changes among South Koreans from an objective viewpoint.

No more reform?

The survey found a growing number of South Korean people are moving toward the center ideologically, which is evident in their responses to several government policies.

The Hankyoreh asked the respondents questions regarding 10 different issues, including the government's North Korea policy, state intervention in business, crackdown on demonstrations, and debate on whether to pursue growth or wealth distribution.

Of those surveyed, 78.7 percent said that the government should pursue growth over wealth distribution, a figure higher than the 68.9 percent recorded in 2002 and 72.9 percent recorded in 2004 on the same question.

On the government's policies to raise taxes for better social welfare programs, 59.8 percent said they are in favor of the move, lower than the 61.0 percent in 2002 and 61.9 percent in 2004, the survey showed.

Only 17.3 percent said that they "entirely support" the tax policies, well below the 28.2 percent recorded on the question four years ago.

According to the survey, only 32.4 percent said that are in favor of eradicating socioeconomic disparity no matter what consequences might be, a figure far below the question's 57.7 percent of respondents in 2002 and 41.3 percent in 2004. The growing conservative mentality is also evident in the attitude toward security concerns on the Korean Peninsula and Korea’s diplomatic relations with the U.S. and North Korea.

The issue of Seoul expanding economic aid for North Korea as part of its sunshine policy was in 2004 supported by 58.9 percent of the respondents and opposed by 41.1 percent. However, the gap has been narrowed in this year’s survey to 53.5 percent and 46.5 percent.

The portion of the people who support the idea that Korea should respect the United States government's view on Korean Peninsula security issues has been growing from 20 percent in 2002 to 30.2 percent in 2004 and 37.1 percent in the latest survey. Yet, a dominant 62.9 percent of those surveyed still favor Korea’s independent diplomacy toward the U.S.

62.5% Disapprove Excessive Police Crackdown on Protesters

58.1% Support Korea-U.S. FTA

The Hankyoreh also asked about the two latest controversial topics -- the Daechuri incident in Pyeongtaek and Korea’s potential signing of a free trade agreement with the U.S.

Concerning rallies by Pyeongtaek residents and peace activists protesting the expansion of U.S. military bases there, 62.5 percent of the polled people disapproved of the excessive use of force by law enforcement authorities.

The use of force to suppress rallies was “categorically opposed” by 27.3 percent and “generally opposed” by 35.2 percent. But disparity between categories’ viewpoints was fairly insignificant, as overall the general disapproval ratings of each group hovered between 61.5 and 62 percent. This is the same level (62.9 percent) who said that Korea should respect the U.S. view when there is disagreement on security issues related to the Korean Peninsula.

Korea’s planned signing of a free trade agreement with the U.S. was favored by 58.1 percent and opposed by 41.9 percent. Nearly 68 percent of the respondents from the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industries disapproved the plan while 67.3 percent of self-employed workers supported the free trade agreement.

These latest findings by The Hankyoreh serve to dispute some government statistics on the Korea-U.S. FTA. Citing the result of one opinion poll, Kwon Tae-shin, vice minister of finance and economy said last Wednesday (May 10), “Seventy-one percent of the entire population supports Korea’s signing of a free trade agreement with the U.S.”

Meanwhile, allowing a college entrance system in which not only merit but large monetary donations by applicants’ families would secure admission, was opposed by 65.2 percent, while 60.2 percent supported the revival of a competitive high school admission system instead of the current random distribution of high school entrants. It is worth mentioning that 74.8 percent of people in the upper income bracket disapproved donation-based college admission even though they serve to reap greater benefit from the system if implemented.

An overwhelming 81.6 percent supported hiring temporary workers as part of a full-time workforce, with the approval rating among blue-collar workers of 91.3 percent a higher figure than the affirmative response of white-collar workers, who weighed in at 84.2 percent.