earticle

영어

The rise of bureaucratic-authoritarian state in Korea was analysed in the past through various factors including political, economic, social or cultural variables. Differently from other's approaches, the psychological factor was adopted in this study as the principal variable. More than anything else, the leader's personality is highlighted in explaining the Korean case. In the study of political psychology, it is argued that the leader's personality influences the emergence and change of a political system. Hence, the basic premise underlying this study is that the bureaucratic-authoritarian transition in Korea mainly came from President Park's authoritarian personality. Authoritarian personality is conceptualized as the covariation of three clusters: authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, and conventionalism. The concepts of the authoritarian personality reveal close similarities to the characteristics of the bureaucratic- authoritarian state. According to Park's personality, it is obvious that Park revealed authoritarian type. It can be said that Korean political system was largely molded by his political behavior produced by the authoritarian personality. It became clear that the understanding of the political change is important to integrate political analyses focused on leader's behavior determined by his personality and its impact on his behavior.