A. Introduction
South Korea and Taiwan share many similarities. Both countries experienced Japanese colonization, have inefficient natural resources, are affected by Confucian ideas, were divided after WWII, received US economic and military aid, and had high saving rates and a high investment in education. However, the two countries’ democratization process has shown many differences. While Taiwan’s democratization was slow and a top-down process, South Korea’s democratization was fast and a bottom-up process. The differences are due to their different paths of economic development and historical differences. Therefore, I will describe their different paths of economic development and historical background to explain why the two countries have a different path of democratization. First of all, I will describe the differences of the two countries’ economic development path and what caused the difference of democratization of the two countries. Then, I will describe the differences of the two countries’ historical background which causes the difference of democratization. In conclusion, I will summarize my argument.