The political party system in South Korea

The stability of all political systems rests on their capacity to effectively channel society’s demands. As such, political parties play a central role. Nowadays, even the State necessitates parties develop representational functions and act as an intermediary for same vis-à-vis civil society.

 
The articulation of these in the dynamics of the struggle for political power, will define the features of the party system, determining, as noted by Dieter Nohlen, their number, size, ideological distance and positioning within the political system.

In this regard, the party system in South Korea, like any other, has been identified by their “political society”. We often talk about the existence of a highly homogeneous society, but there are still regional cleavages that have influenced the formation and development of the party system. This situation has been exploited by politicians to win support, especially in Chile’s Cholla Region which has been marked its delayed development as compared to other Regions of the country.

In addition, South Korea has a moderate multi-party system, with features a low level of institutionalization and low ideological distance, which translates into a lack of substantially different political projects among which the electorate can choose when voting, on the one hand. And, secondly, it translates into the emergence of personality-based leaders who transcend their parties, thereby weakening the constituent structures and ideas of these, and manifesting itself in social dislocation and constant formation and re-formation of political parties.

The strengthening of the party system is fundamental to consolidating a democratic process. Thus, the political system of South Korea should move in that direction, otherwise it falls into the risk of transforming the existing strong presidential system into an exercise of political power without counterweight or control, undermining the role of other political institutions in a democracy and allowing the emergence of difficult to eliminate evils such as corruption and cronyism.