Institutions and Path to Democratic Control of the Military in South Korea: A Research Note

In 2024, South Korea once again found itself at the center of a political controversy, where a democratically elected president, the military, and the legislature engaged in partisan domestic conflict. This episode culminated in the president’s declaration of martial law and the deployment of troops to neutralize the National Assembly. This study raises the question of why the South Korean military continues to exhibit behavior reminiscent of authoritarian rule within a democratic framework. By employing historical institutional analysis, it meticulously reveals how institutional legacies—such as the institutionalization of patronage networks, legal codes governing obedience, and cultural norms—that were established during the authoritarian era have persisted even after democratization. In the South Korean case, the 2024 martial law incident was a product of these deeply embedded institutional legacies rather than a temporary deviation.