Factors of Territorial Electoral Differentiation in the Republic of Korea in 2012–2022

The key factor determining the electoral geography of the Republic of Korea is political regionalism. This regionalism is based on the history of economic development in the country. Regionalism manifests itself in increased or decreased support for politicians in different regions. Differences in political contexts between certain regions can be seen as differences in regional political cultures, leading to completely different electoral splits in each culture. The regional factor greatly complicates the compositional analysis, which involves using statistical methods to examine the relationship between voter behavior and socioeconomic characteristics. In this study, we adapted these methods to the Korean. There is a significant regional variation in how factors affect dependent variables. For major parties and candidates, the selected factors’ impact on their electoral geography varies from region to region. The Jeolla region is particularly notable, as it is more prone to regionalism. In this region, the socio-demographic factors do not practically explain the electoral geography of the main political parties. As in some other regions the compositional approach cannot be applied due to the contextual factors’ influence. Parties gain increased support not in regions with a specific socio-demographic profile, but rather in the politicians’ “home districts.” For example, the support for the regionalist party in Chungcheong is mainly due to the distance from the leaders’ birthplaces. However, most of the variance in the dependent variables within the region is a result of socio-demographic factors.