Korean Politics Viewer's Guide: Ii. The Parties
Saturday, 21 April 2018
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The viewer's guide for South Korean politics continues! Part II of this series will take a look at South Korea's political parties and what they stand for.
Now is a tricky time to write this post, because political parties in South Korea are going through a once-a-generation level of realignment. For the most part, the history of South Korean democracy had two major parties--conservative and liberal--with some minor parties appearing here and there. But the historic impeachment and removal of Park Geun-hye shook up the political picture in Korea like no other recent events.
Given this, the best way to understand where South Korea's political parties stand is to look at Korea's history of political parties, identify the major strands that flow through, and see how those strands match up with each party.
So here we go.
Super Basic Stuff
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| The National Assembly Hall in Seoul (discussed in Part I) except perhaps in labor market flexibility. Mostly made up of the former Roh Moo-hyun faction, led by Moon Jae-in. 2. Liberty Korea Party [자유한국당]. The main conservative party, with 93 seats. The mirror image of the Democratic Party, as it falls on the conservative of essentially all issues in Korean politics. Mostly made up of the former Park Geun-hye faction. 3. People's Party [국민의 당]. The secondary liberal party with 40 seats. The People's Party claims to be the more centrist alternative to the Democratic Party when it comes to North Korea policies, while maintaining the liberal stance in domestic issues. Mostly made up of the former Kim Dae-jung faction, led by Ahn Cheol-su. 4. Bareun Party [바른정당]. The secondary conservative party with 33 seats. Bareun Party claims to be the more "reasonable" alternative to the Liberty Korea Party, promising a clean break from Park Geun-hye's legacy of being impeached. Mostly made up of the former Lee Myung-bak faction. Minor Parties 5. Justice Party [정의당]. Far-left / progressive party with six seats. Justice Party claims to be the progressive alternative to the major liberal parties, with greater attention to intersectionality and labor issues. Although it nationally has about 4% support, it tends to be over-represented among young urbanites. 6. Saenuri Party [새누리당]. Far right party with one seat. After the "original" Saenuri Party changed its name into Liberty Korea Party, the right-wing civic groups who truly love dictatorship formed the "new" Saenuri Party, and managed to recruit one Assembly Member. Again, this configuration with four major parties is highly unusual in South Korea, which means there is no guarantee that this configuration will remain this way. Duverger's Law says a single-member, first-past-the post electoral system like South Korea's favors a two-party system. South Korea's experience has been consistent with that. While there have been many minor parties other than the two major parties, only one of those parties--the Liberty Democratic Alliance--managed to be a major party (i.e. greater than 20 seats in the National Assembly,) and that was only for a single election cycle from 1996 to 2000. This means it is unlikely for this four-major-parties configuration will survive for a long time, because the gravitational force will push the secondary parties toward joining the main conservative or liberal party. Although it has been barely five months since the conservative split, Bareun Party is facing a great deal of pressure to merge back into the Liberty Korea Party. Although the People's Party appears to have a stronger footing than Bareun, supporters of the People's Party are beginning to grumble that its leader Ahn Cheol-su may be turning too conservative as he is moving toward the center. (Part III, which discusses the presidential candidates, will discuss more in detail.) All of this means: we are in some volatile times, and the snapshot we have right now may not go on for much longer. Keep that in mind as you go on observing South Korean politics. Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com. Sumber http://askakorean.blogspot.com
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