Evaluating the Impact of Civil War Violence on Post-War Politics in South Korea

• In Event: Poster Session: International Security I

Abstract

How does the experience of civil war violence translate into post-war politics? Through what mechanism does the experience of civil war violence impact the political attitude and behaviour of the victims of violence in post-conflict politics? By analysing an original dataset of mass killings during the Korean War at the electoral district level, this paper argues that political opportunity structure created by the belligerents' physical control of the political community and discursive control over the context of violence during war creates a very different political opportunity structure to act for different types of victims. The physical and discursive control within South Korea held by the Syngman Rhee regime allowed the victims of Communist violence during the Korean war ample political opportunity to take political action, while the victims of South Korean government violence were disallowed the opportunity to do so. Only after the collapse of the Syngman Rhee regime and its loss of control over the physical and discursive control over South Korea allowed the victims of South Korean government violence the political opportunity structure to act upon their victimhood.

Theoretically, this paper aims to demonstrate the variation in the community’s propensity to act upon their experience of violence in the post-conflict setting caused by the political opportunity structure. Moreover, this paper aims to better elaborate on the causal mechanism behind the political implications of civil war violence in post-conflict settings.

Author

• Jae Park, University of Toronto