Electoral system reform debates in democratized South Korea

抄録

This article analyzed the debates over legislative and executive electoral reforms in South Korea. An Examination of Korean politicians' political backgrounds revealed that they suffer from insecure career prospects, which may facilitate repeated reform debates. Regarding the longitudinal trend, we find that the focal point has shifted from SNTV to PR in the legislative arena, while the focus in executive debate has shifted from parliamentarism to deconcentration of power and the change in term limits. Also, over time, legislators have come to play a more significant role in both arenas. Furthermore, the actor-by-actor comparison revealed, first, that presidents’ behavior is “unpredictable” in both areas; second, the legislative debate tends to be more partisan than the executive; third, the Constitutional Court and the National Election Commission play a significant role only in the legislative debate; and fourth, civil society groups are more active in the legislative than in executive debate.