The problem isn't that it's oligarchical, the problem is corruption. You don't need to look far to see that democracy and free markets aren't exactly free of corruption either.
Tying the two is nothing but a red herring.
Tying the two is nothing but a red herring.
Sure modern democracy and free market aren't free of problems, but Korea can use some Rule of Law.
[1] http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/15/3991338/samsung-x-file-tap...
There is no contradiction between being a republic and a democracy unless one unreasonably restricts the definition of democracy to direct democracy. Reasonable definitions of democracy include representative democracy, which is practiced in many republics.
As we see, many republics face problems with all of the above. Including US. Technicalities such as non-majority presidents and strict bipartisan systems...
In certain countries like UK, where apparently ruling party was against the strict referendum results.
In Poland, where the ruling party is changing the judicial branch to their benefit.
Those are not third world banana republics.
Those two go hand-in-hand. One leads to the other and neither are good for the economy or the citizens as a whole.