Abstract

Research on localism in the form of the friends and neighbors effect (FNE) over the past 70 years has been focused on Western democracies, but has largely overlooked political contexts in other regions. This article examines the prevalence of the FNE in presidential elections in the Republic of Korea to partially fill this gap. The particular significance of this contextual electoral effect is due to the specific phenomenon of Korean regionalism, largely created by politicians. The results of the study confirm the main assumptions about the importance of geographical proximity between the candidate and the electorate for the spatial distribution of candidate support. Most candidates’ electoral support levels are higher near their birthplaces. Differences in the effect’s expression are observed among urban and provincial, left-wing and all other, major and minor candidates. The gradual decrease in the influence of the effect over time is consistent with the assumption of a link between the FNE and regionalism in Korea. Regionalism, created by politicians who mobilized their regional strongholds, becomes weaker due to the increasing orientation of young voters towards institutions and structures rather than personalities. Another factor mitigating regionalism is the FNE within major party strongholds.