Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Charu Gopal, and I am a freshman at Florida State. I was born in northern India, but I currently live in Keller, Texas. In terms of research interests, I would like to explore the relationship between human behavior and Economics. I would also love to continue the research I am currently conducting to further investigate more socioeconomic variables as an influential factor for changes in Democracy. Some of my current goals entail pursuing honors in the major for Economics, with a double minor in Statistics and Music. In the future, I hope to expand my skill and knowledge in this field and go to graduate school to continue research and advance my education.

Political Confidence and Its Effect on Democracy

Abstract

Public confidence in democracy is on a consistent decline in East Asia. Specifically, South Korea seemed to
have a successful transition from an authoritarian government to democracy in the late 1980s, but many are
labeling South Korea as a flawed democracy in its current state. In this study, we are looking for some
possible explanations for this conclusion through the relationship between 3 distinct variables: quality of
government performance, confidence in government organization, and general trust of South Korean
residents. Does government performance affect public confidence in democracy? Does the conduction of
major government organizations affect public confidence in democracy? Do these variables provide evidence
for South Korea’s flawed democracy? To investigate these research questions, we will conduct a large-scale
empirical investigation with the data from South Korea over a span of two decades (1995-2020). To operate
this study, we will collect global-level data using cross-national surveys measuring people’s trust, how people
view various issues regarding government performance, and level of confidence in political organizations.
After we obtain enough samples of data, Excel will organize these variables according to the date of
collection, allowing us to analyze how these variables change and predict what factors influence these
developments. Finally, we will transform the data in excel into a 5-number summary to examine our
theoretical expectations. This research is ongoing, but we hope to prove that there is a direct correlation
between political confidence and trust in the Democratic Political System.

Keywords: Public Confidence, Global Data, Democracy