Party Politics in Korea after Democratization, 1987-2020: What has and hasn’t changed? (2021.06)
- Author : Hyun Jae Ho
- Publication : East and West Studies
- Publisher : Institute of East and West Studies
- Volume : 33(2)
- Date : June 2021
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to examine the problems of party competition that have emerged over a generation since democratization on focusing supply-side at the level of political parties and party systems. It is the electoral programmes that has been chosen as the material of analysis for this purpose. This paper confirmed several facts through analysis of this. Firstly, the pattern of competition between parties through the macro-level left-right (progressive-conservative) scale and the micro-level issue dimension shows its regularity over time. It appears to be a competitive structure over Korean Peninsula Peace and social welfare issues, with the Democratic Party of Korea and the Justice Party as one axis and the People Power Party and People’s Party another. Secondly, political parties have played a crucial role in easing tensions on the Korean Peninsula through the “Sunshine Policy” and on the agenda of issues such as “a tax increase on the rich” and ‘universal welfare’. The role of political parties in this process proves the validity of the supply–side(endogenous role). Thirdly, nevertheless, the overall aspect of party competition does not go as far as full-fledged left-right competition in the Western sense. This is due not only to the lack of economic issues emerging as an independent dimension of party competition, but also to the lack of the party’s realistic power to drive such issues consistently, as shown by neoliberal stance of major parties’ economic policies or factor analysis.