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In democratizing countries ordinary citizens have limited knowledge about and experience in democratic politics. In consolidating nascent democratic rule, therefore, many third-wave democracies have been seriously hampered by the lack of essential qualities of democratic citizenship. This study has attempted to explicate the notion of citizen sophistication with regard to democratic politics in Korea, a country widely regarded as one of the most influential new democracies. Analysis of the Korea Democracy Barometer surveys, 1996-2001, shows that the cognitive, affective, and behavioral qualities of democratic citizenship are all in very short supply. Moreover, these qualities have increasingly become scarcer in recent years. On the basis of the findings, it can be argued that Korea's march to consolidated democracy is likely to be an intergenerational rather than an intra-generational phenomenon.
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