Election Campaigns and Political Actors in South Korea

Abstract

By using a participant observation approach, this study attempts to examine a vote-gathering mechanism for parliamentary elections in South Korea. The purpose of this study is to inquire from a rational choice perspective on political behavior, as to what a candidate offers in order to establish her electoral base and how voters are organized into a firm support group for the candidate.
In South Korea, electoral mobilization usually takes a form of “regionalism” in which a voter votes for the candidate who comes from the region that the voter comes from. This study shows that as a consequence of strategic calculation of the actors involved in electoral campaigning, regionalism has evolved into a system of give-and-take connections between the candidate and her supporters. In addition to the electoral campaigners who seek benefits through regional ties, this study sheds new light on the fact that electoral campaigning relies heavily on those who derive gains from supporting the candidate, independent of their regional tie with the candidate.