Similarities and Differences between the Democratization Process in Poland and South Korea in the Late 1980s

This study aims to compare the democratization process in Poland and South Korea in the late 1980s. Despite their distant geographical and cultural location, the two countries happen to share many similarities regarding their recent history and geopolitics. For this reason, it is beneficial to compare the two in order to find out the main conditions and factors, which contributed to democratic transition in both of them. The study focuses on the ideas of democracy, democratization, and transplacement as the main concepts that define the democratization process in Poland and South Korea. Through the comparison, we find outthat there are many more similarities than differences between the two. We also learn that both economic stagnation and economic prosperity can similarly contribute to forcing authoritarian governments to democratize, yet the same economic factors also very often determine the final results of the process.