Leadership Qualities and Political Contexts:

The reversals in President Roh Moo-hyun’s{RMH)pitical fortunes have been dramatic even by the standards of South Korea s turbulent politics. 까us paper exarnines the nature of the successes and failures of the RMH administration’s policy initiatives. In Pticular， it exarnines why the RMH government s picy initiatives have been limited and explores the impact of lÏs limitation on the process of the consolidation of democracy in South Korea. We argue that experiences under the RMH administration similar to those of the Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung administrations are simply tals and errors of democratization that indicate another failure in civilian presidential leadership in South Korea as compared to mty presidential leadership. Despite all the trials and errors in presidential politics under the RMH administration, democraα remains a valued goal in South Korea. However, full-fledged democratic consolidation in South Korea is proceeding rather slowly and is even being delayed.