Rationality and Democratic Transition in Developing Societies

There is an ongoing debate on the usefulness of rational choice theory in analyzing political phenomena in the non-Western world as well as its usefulness in analyzing particular real world situations. Using institutional changes during the democratic transition in Korea, this book tests the application of rational choice theory in the analyses of real-world events in non-Western societies. This book will add to the accumulated knowledge to the study of democratic transition in Korea and in developing countries in general. This book will also help us to understand why seemingly strange set of events occurred in Korea and elsewhere when all political actors behaved in a rational fashion. By uncovering how politicians and policy-makers thought, behaved, and made decisions in the past, this book will contribute to our ability not only to explain what have occurred but to anticipate the course of political events in the future in developing countries undergoing democratic transition.