Religion and Politics in South Korea

According to survey data collected in 2004, over 87% of Korean people answered that they have a religious affiliation, and only 12% answered that they don’t have any religious affiliation. By simply looking at this data description, we recognize that Korean people have strong religious orientation in their lives. In addition, because to the diversity of religions that Korean people have, South Korea can be a good case study for the relations between religion and politics. The main research question addressed in this paper is how individuals’ religiosity relates to their political attitudes (political tolerance and party identification)and behavior (voting behavior) in South Korea.What I found in this research, in related to the relationship between religion and political tolerance, there is a difference between the two groups－Christians are less tolerant than Buddhists. However, Christians and Buddhists (the two dominant religions in South Korea) do not differ significantly in relations to their party identification and voting choice in the 2002 presidential election. Even though the theological background of Buddhism is more close to liberalism than that of Christianity, the political behaviors of the two groups are similar in South Korea. One possible conclusion from the data analysis and hypotheses testing is that people who have a religion are more conservative than people who have no religion (seculars) in South Korea.