The Effect of Partisan Identity on Individual’s Economic and Political Attitudes: An Empirical Analysis on the South Korean Case

What is the determinant of an individual’s attitudes on economic and political situations? Following Achen and Bartels (2016), we focus on the partisan effects of group identity. We argue that partisan identity is critical to thinking about the economic and political circumstances of democratic citizens. To substantiate this argument, we choose South Korea as a key exemplar case. Using statistical analysis on South Korea survey data, the results show that individuals’ attitudes on economic and political situations depend largely on the partisan difference between the ruling cabinets and their own. In other words, liberals tend to view the economic and political circumstances negatively when conservative administration governs, but positively when liberal administration governs even though economic and democratic conditions have not changed much.