Post-Communist Transition Revisited: The North Korean Regime in a Comparative Authoritarian Perspective

Abstract

The view of convergence in terms of process of direction of change in the former state socialist countries invites questions about the cases of non-transition and their typological regime features. The paper examines the North Korean regime to assess its uniqueness in the path of post-communist transition and plausible explanations to the divergent outcome. North Korea’s non-transition owes much to its unique behavioural features derived from different historical experience, leadership, legitimation, and political culture. The country-specific developments challenge the general transition paradigm, and warrant the behavioural approaches rather than institutional approaches to transition in studying the cases of non-transition. In regard to North Korea, the question is no longer finding the prototype of transition that is recommendable, but accepting the country-specific development process in search for alternatives, which may lead to a distinctive path and process. The observation of North Korea invites a new comparative perspective on the remaining socialist countries in Asia, which brings the framework of transition from the authoritarian rule in assessing the prospects and challenges of political change.

Keywords

• post-communist transition
• non-transition
• North Korean regime
• political elites
• authoritarianism