Environmental Protest and Policy Change in Korea

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Environmental Protest and Policy Change in Korea

• Sunhyuk Kim
• Dept of Public Administration, Korea Univ
• Seongeun Cho
• Institute of Governmental Studies, Korea Univ

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Contents
?
Introduction
?
Theoretical Overview Methodology
?
Analysis Environmental Protest and Policy
Change
?
C Conclusion
3
Introduction
? Historical trajectory toward a environmental
governance in South Korea
4
Introduction
Research questions
Aim of this research
5
Theoretical Overview Methodology

• 1. Policy Change A Theoretical Overview
• 1) Determinants of policy change

6
Theoretical Overview Methodology

• 1. Policy Change A Theoretical Overview
• 2) Social protest as a determinant of policy
  change

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Theoretical Overview Methodology

• 2. The Dataset and Methodology
• 1) Dataset PEDAK(Protest Event Data Archive
  Korea)

? PEDAK is a database based on protest events
that took place and were reported in newspapers
between 1988 and 2007 in Korea. ? PEDAK
collects the following data by analyzing and
coding newspaper reports on post-transitional
popular protests. -Number of protests per
year -General measures of protest activities
-Sociovocational category of protest
participants -Repertoires of contention
-Types and contents of protest goals, demands,
grievances -Reactions to protest actions
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Theoretical Overview Methodology

• 2. The Dataset and Methodology
• 2) Variables Measurement

Variables Variables Variables Measurement
Dependent variable Policy change Policy change No policy change, Policy modified, Policy changed
Independent variables Scope Scope -Duration of protest -Number of protest participation
Independent variables Strategy Type Violent, Nonviolent but disruptive, Nondisruptive
Independent variables Strategy Consistency/ Continuity No change, Original methods combined with new ones, Original methods replaced by new ones
Independent variables Strategy Legality/ Illegality Legal(0), Illegal(1)
Independent variables Participants Sociovocation Blue-collar working, Unspecified, White-collar working
Independent variables Demands Contents Economic, Political, Ecological , Economic/Political, Political/Ecological, Economic/Ecological, Economic/Political/Ecological
Independent variables Demands Number
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Analysis Simple Correlational Coefficients
Policy change
Scope Duration Duration .000
Scope Number of Participants Number of Participants .025
Strategy Violence Violence -.059
Strategy Consistency/Continuity Consistency/Continuity .008
Strategy Illegality Illegality -.197
Participants Sociovocational Categories Sociovocational Categories .153
Demands/ Grievances Contents Political .058
Demands/ Grievances Contents Economic .007
Demands/ Grievances Contents Political/Ecological -.159
Demands/ Grievances Contents Economic/Ecological -.192
Demands/ Grievances Contents Political/Economic/Ecological .100
Demands/ Grievances Number Number .134
plt0.1, plt0.05, plt0.01
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Analysis Simple Correlational Coefficients

• ? DISCUSSION
• Illegality of protest
• Negatively correlated with policy change
• Contents of demand
• Political or economic demands to ecological
  demands
• seem to be counterproductive in bringing
  policy change.
• Protest Scope Positively correlated with policy
  change.
• Violent protest Negatively correlated with
  policy change.

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Analysis Multiple Regression
Policy change Policy change
B(S.E) Beta
Constant Constant Constant .194(.822)
Scope Duration Duration -.105(.089) -.164
Scope Number of Participants Number of Participants .036(.069) .062
Strategy Violence Violence .785(.439) .458
Strategy Consistency/Continuity Consistency/Continuity .109(.284) .047
Strategy Illegality Illegality -1.278(.529) -.613
Participants Sociovocational Categories Sociovocational Categories .366(.198) .225
Demands/ Grievances Contents Political .125(.252) .068
Demands/ Grievances Contents Economic .109(.504) .027
Demands/ Grievances Contents Political/Ecological -1.455(.920) -.186
Demands/ Grievances Contents Economic/Ecological -1.311(.600) -.328
Demands/ Grievances Contents Political/Economic/Ecological -.112(1.015) -.014
Demands/ Grievances Number Number .705(.350) .287
F-Value R2 F-Value R2 F-Value R2 1.733 0.264 1.733 0.264
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Analysis Multiple Regression

• ? DISCUSSION
• R2 of model is 26.4, Significance level is 0.1.
• Statistically significant variables
• -Legality/illegality of the protest
  strategies
• Illegal protest strategies are less likely
  to lead to policy change.
• -Economic/ecological demands/grievances
• Ecological demands combined with
  economic demands
• seems to decrease the likelihood of
  policy change.
• -The number of demands/grievances
• As the number of protest demands
  increase, likelihood of
• policy change increases.

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Conclusion Implication
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Conclusion Implication
? Conclusion Environmental policy change is
significantly affected by protest strategies,
demands/grievances, and not by protest scope. ?
Implication It is not the objective/absolute size
of resource mobilization but the
subjective/relative usage of strategies and
framing of demands/grievances that are far more
closely correlated with policy change.
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THANK YOUAssociation for Public Analysis and
Management