SUNGKYUNKWAN UNIVERSITY (SKKU), SEOUL, KOREA

The Department of Political Science & Diplomacy's research project, "New Normal Era, New Democracy", led by professor Wonbin Cho, was selected as the "Social Science Korea (SSK) Mid-sized Support Project" organized by the Ministry of Education and National Research Foundation of Korea, and will receive 300 million KRW in research funding annually for three years starting from September 2020. The research project will be carried out by the College of Social Science's "Center for Good Democracy" and 15 researchers will participate.

With the theme "New Social Norms and Public Nature", the research project aims to develop new theories and present appropriate models and evaluation criteria for democracy by analyzing and evaluating how they interact in various political and economic systems based on the concepts of "New Democracy", core elements, and sub-elements.

There have been discussions about the New Normal phenomena that encompass low growth and low consumption, low birth rate and aging, digital capitalism, labor market crises of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, climate change caused by global warming, and the spread of unpredictable epidemics such as COVID-19, but they are still not established as theoretical concepts.

The ongoing resistance to structural racism in the United States, the growth of extreme right parties in Europe, repeated populism in South America, solidified authoritarianism in the Middle East, and China's growing influence in developing countries, including Africa, show signs of a crisis in democracy that triggers not only self-reflection within the existing democratic system but also a debate over competition for democracy versus authoritarianism.