Anti-authoritarian attitudes after democratic movements: Evidence from the June Struggle of 1987 in South Korea

Abstract

A momentous democratic protest against an authoritarian regime can affect individuals’ social attitudes. This study empirically examined the impact of democratic movements on anti-authoritarian attitudes by focusing on the June Struggle of 1987 in South Korea, which was one of the most successful democratic uprisings in Korean history. Using representative survey data, we compared cohorts who started college before and after the year of the June Struggle. Because the year of college enrollment itself can act as an endogenous variable, we applied the fuzzy regression discontinuity method, using birthdate as an instrumental variable. We found that individuals who began attending college after the successful democratic movement tended to demonstrate stronger anti-authoritarian attitudes in their late thirties. A battery of robustness tests supported the results. This study's results reaffirm the argument that historical events can have enduring effects on social attitudes, helping us to understand one potential mechanism explaining anti-authoritarian attitudes in Korean society.