Who Remains Conservative?

Abstract

This study investigated the logic behind the formation process of political orientation in Korea by revisiting Thorstein Veblen's social Darwinism perspective, according to which the highest and lowest income groups keep their conservativeness longer than other groups either willingly or passively. In order to prove his theory, this study borrowed a dataset from the World Values Survey (WVS) and applied several regression models. As a result, conservativeness decreased as level of income increased; however, the extent to which conservative orientation decreases became smaller. It meant that Veblen's theory has well fitted into Korean society. Based on the results, this study diagnosed current circumstance of Korean society having suffered from serious social and political polarization. It concluded that the polarization happened due mainly to the time gap among individuals to capitulate to the pressure of change which the present age requires accepting, and finally provided appropriate stance to address the problem.