Three out of 4 South Koreans said they were dissatisfied with the country’s political situation, according to the results of a survey summarized in a recent report.

The Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and Seoul National University’s Center for Social Welfare conducted the poll of 6,331 households between February and May last year. The topics were political participation, political orientation and perception of welfare.

Of the respondents, 74.88 percent said they were dissatisfied with the current political situation in Korea. Only 6.1 percent said they were satisfied.

Half of the respondents (50.54 percent) said they were not interested in politics, whereas 48.87 percent said they were.

About 2 out of 5 (41.49 percent) said they were politically centrist, while 31.06 percent said they were progressive and 20.22 percent said they were conservative. Some 7.23 percent said they couldn’t decide.

When asked whether increased social welfare decreases people’s willingness to work, 46.55 percent said it does not, while 34.96 percent said it does.

When asked which is more important, economic growth or fair distribution of resources, 51.61 percent chose growth and 48.34 percent chose fair distribution.

On the question of whether “taxes should be cut to boost the economy,” it was a near tie with 36.93 percent yeas and 36.32 percent nays. Similarly, participants were about evenly split on the proposition that “taxes must increase for social welfare” with 33.5 percent yeas and 32.46 percent nays.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)