This study aims to explore the paradox of declining public confidence in the South Korean military despite a successful transition from subjective civilian control to an objective one. Previous literature adopting the classical civil-military relations framework, following Samuel Huntington, implicitly focused on the dyadic relations between the government and the military and ultimately failed to provide useful insight into the declining public confidence in the South Korean Armed Forces. We argue that a transition to objective civilian control does not necessarily accompany high public confidence in the military, particularly in contexts of South Korea, where the majority of civilians have had extensive military experiences due to the conscription system over the past seventy years. Instead, we emphasize the tripartite relations among the government, the military, and the heterogeneous civilians-at-large to better explain declining public confidence in the military. To support our perspective, we empirically test how civilians’ diverse demographic backgrounds, socio-political values, and voluntary association participations affect public confidence in the Republic of Korea Armed Forces. We finally discuss what our findings imply for policy and theoretical progress of the civil-military relations in post-authoritarian regimes and young democracies more generally.

Abstract

Introduction

Background
Declining public confidence in the armed forces
Accounting for institutional confidence “bottom-up”

Method
Data: South Korean Module in World Value Surveys, 1982-2018
Variables
Analytic Approach
Result
Discussion and Conclusion

References