Globalization and the new Left Party in the periphery: The Korean Democratic Labor Party (KDLP), 2000--2004

The objective of this dissertation is to examine the effects of globalization upon political party formation and party system change in the periphery, and to address the larger literature on labor movements, the political economy of democratization, political parties, and globalization. This dissertation attempts to demonstrate how globalization shapes the timing as well as the ideological component of the left political movement in South Korea. What accounts for the emergence and revival of ideological leftist political parties in the periphery during a period when neoliberal global trends led many to discount the Left as a viable option? In order to address this question, the experience of South Korea---specifically, the formation of the Korean Democratic Labor Party (KDLP)---will be examined. The formation of the KDLP was a watershed event in Korea's political history, because no prior political parties representing the working class have survived there. In the less than four years since its inception, the KDLP has emerged as the third major political party in Korea. My dissertation attempts to demonstrate that globalization transformed South Korea's once submissive labor force into a militant social force, and contributed to increased polarization of the electorate and radicalization of the working class. Furthermore, my dissertation puts forth that the emergence of a labor party in Korea is not an isolated phenomenon, but a manifestation of the political consequences of the latest capitalist crisis as well as an indication of a growing movement in the periphery. Based on primary data gathered through personal interviews between 2002 and 2003 with union leaders, labor and student activists, and approximately 60 KDLP members, the processes by which labor parties are built will be analyzed at the micro-level. The interview method was chosen to shift attention from the analysis of capitalist structure and contradictory capitalist development to the role that agents play in the development of a labor party. My dissertation seeks to contribute to the understanding of the type of movement that engenders the critical social, economic, and political consciousness necessary to create a social democratic party.