South Korean Presidential Election Panel Study: Six Waves, 2007

The South Korean Presidential Election Panel Study examined vote determinants of Korean voters and the causes and dynamics of changes in voter preferences. The survey for the 2007 Presidential Election Panel Studies in South Korea was conducted from April to December 2007 in six waves with a large-scale panel of 3,500 representing the nation's gender, age, region, and education proportions.The study analyzed factors that influence the formation and change of voter preferences through three broad theoretical frameworks: (1) The sociological model that explains voter preference as a reflection of major social fragmentation (education, gender, income, religion, region, etc.); (2) The psychological model of the Michigan School that explains voter preference formation and change as activation of party identification in United States or Western elections, and regional identification in Korea as a proxy; (3) The rational voter model that posits that individuals, after calculating their own interests, support candidates or parties that possess the policies and ideology to maximize those interests. Tracking core questions are questions that repeatedly track the change in vote determinants, the core project of the current study. The tracking core questions that will track public opinion change over the entire period of the panel surveys consist of questions about attitudes on candidate factors, political party factors, election campaigns, issues, and policies. Whenever possible, the questions use the wording of international surveys such as the ANES questionnaire to allow international comparisons, but when not appropriate to the reality of Korean elections, new question items are developed. The current study analyzed which of the three models is the most appropriate in explaining Korean elections and voter preference.