Of the many developments of the twentieth century that have been directly transmitted to the new millennium, three legacies of global significance stand out. The first has been dubbed the “third wave” of global democratization, which began with the overthrow of Portugal's dictatorial regime in April 1974. The second and most dramatic development is the end of the Cold War, symbolized by the crumbling of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and accompanied by a rapid succession of momentous changes in world politics (e.g., the collapse of communism, the end of superpower rivalry and bipolarity, German reunification, and the demise of the Soviet Union). Finally, the third of these significant phenomena is the acceleration and intensification of globalization in the last decade of the twentieth century. All of these developments have profound but differentiated ramifications for the future of Korean democracy. Here we will address the first and third legacies, with an emphasis on the relationship between globalization and democratization, as a way of establishing a broad global–local analytical framework for Korea's democratization process.

At the beginning of the new millennium, the Republic of Korea (ROK, hereafter “Korea”) is widely regarded as one of the most remarkable and influential of the third-wave democracies. Korea's transition to democracy began in 1987–88, and five years later, with the presidential victory of Kim Young Sam in 1992, Korea elected its first civilian leader in three decades.