<Abstract>

1. Electoral System in Korea

  Electoral system in Korea has been changed very dramatically since the 1987 democratic movement. In a short period of time, Korea experienced drastic electoral transformation. Without a doubt, Korea has been continuously moving toward a more stable democracy.

It is sure that 1987 is a landmark year in South Korean political history. Citizens' uprising made the governing power yield to hold a direct election. As a result, the first democratic presidential election was held in 1987. In 1988 National Assembly election, the first democratic general election, the governing party could not secure a half of total seats.

In the process of making clean elections, NGOs played a significant role. The most influential top two NGOs, CCEJ and PSPD, created in 1989 and 1994 respectively. They drove election campaigns to a more policy-oriented competition structure. The PSPD exercised leadership over famous blacklisting campaigns in 2000 Assembly election.

The 2004 revision of election law is so special in the political and electoral history of Korea. It contains various new provisions, from 50 times fines to media-oriented campaign styles. Some scholars criticize that it is so regulatory that candidates cannot enjoy campaign freedom. But, strict regulation is inevitable to drive more transparent Korean election culture in the long-term.

Since the 2004, one voter has two ballots, one for the district candidates, the other for the PR seats. In the most recent National Assembly election, women occupied a 50% of 54 total party list seats. Mandatory quota system helped women boost political representation.

The role of the NEC in Korea is very unique in comparative context. It can be argued that the tireless efforts of NEC contribute to the upgrade of election culture in Korea. As an independent Constitutional agency, the NEC secures its relative autonomy from political and economic powers, making their own decisions without interference of outside influence.

2. Parties and Party System in Korea

The present Party Law was not made all at the same time. Indeed, it has evolved since establishment of Korean government. The first Party Law was written in 1962. Since then, the Law has been amended 17 times until 2010. The general trend of the amendment could be summarized as; the reduction of the obligatory number of local branches; the reduction of the minimum number of party members; and easing the obligations for making up a party. These trends reflect the process of Korean democratization and its consolidation as the Law allows parties to be formed without strict requirements so as to guarantee the freedom of association.

The Party Law defines the appropriate scale of the organization, the minimum qualification for democratic political party, the rules and procedures to be a member, to nominate candidates, and to elect party leaders, obligations to yearly report the NEC, and to establish research institutes, and other essential requirements for being a party.

Recently, the revolutionary changes of political communication by the rapid development of information and communication technologies(ICTs) allow people to get access to the party politics without much of the physical efforts. Actually, the websites of political parties in Korea are quite actively utilized from both sides of the parties and the public. Moreover, the party leaders and Assemblymen are recently quite active to be involved with the public via new on-line channels such as twitter.

Although the parties in Korea are not polarized in accordance of ideological cleavages, the parties in Korea are quite fractionalized according to the regions. The GNP usually gets the most of its support from the Kyungsang Provinces, while Democratic Party gets its support from the Jolla Provinces. These two areas have quite different living styles, cultural emotions, and political interests. This regional conflicts have been formed for a long time and it seems the parties in Korea will be keep those different social bases of party for a while.

3. Political Funds in Korea

According to Democracy Index by Economic Intelligent Units Korea is one of full democracies. There are only two full democracies in Asia. Freedom House categorizes Korea as free countries. Considering its short history of democracy Korea has achieved remarkable political development. Institutionalization of transparent and clean political fund system is critical for new democracies’ consolidation, because corruption and illegal political funds accelerate public’s distrust on politicians as well as democracy itself.

After 2004 political reforms illegal political funds are not a critical issue any more in the Korean politics. Political Reforms on Political Funds focus on control of demand and supply of political funds. The major source of problems is a continuing demand for political money. Unless demand is reduced, no policies are effective. Reform measures concentrates on reducing demands such costs of maintenance of political organizations, election campaign, public speech so on. Simultaneously, supply-side has been controlled. It bans on corporate and organization’s contribution and sets ceiling on contribution of an individual and fundraising of Political Funds Associations. Until now political reforms on political funds are evaluated as a success.