Gangnam Style: The Role of Local Identity in the Electoral Behavior of Gangnam Residents (Seoul)

Abstract

This article examines the electoral anomaly of Seoul’s Gangnam district created by the identity of its residents. The urban middle class of Seoul, which was formed as a large social group in the 1970s and 1980s, materialized in the Gangnam space. The actions of the authorities, real estate speculation, and the alienation of the district’s residents created the division of Seoul residents into Gangnam people and other people. The district became a symbol of inequality. The homogeneity of the electoral preferences of Gangnam residents is a part of the middle-class homogenization of consumer habits, lifestyle, and values as a manifestation of the neighborhood effect. In the first decades of the district’s existence the local electorate supported the incumbent presidents. After the transition of power from a military administration to the civilian one, one of the two main political groups, usually referred to as “conservative”, inherited from the military group not only power, but also the support of the residents of Gangnam. The main electoral split in Korea manifests itself along regional lines, and the largest parties rely on their electoral bases in the southern regions of the country, while there is no stable predominance of support for any political force in Seoul. The only exception is Gangnam that consistently supports the conservatives. In a country where economic and social differences are barely noticed, identity, regional or local, becomes the main factor in voting. Gangnam is an example that demonstrates the importance of the geographical context when analyzing electoral support for a particular party or candidate in different districts of the city. The factor of place for electoral behavior here is more important than any of the extra-spatial factors that usually affect the results of voting. The concept of electoral cleavages in Gangnam is not applicable. We can conclude that the special electoral culture of this district is practically unaffected by social and economic changes in the city and the country. The internal electoral differentiation of Gangnam is determined by the local context, the identity of local residents, and their belonging to the community.