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Politics of South Korea

This article is about the politics of the Republic of Korea. For other uses, see Politics of Korea (disambiguation). For the article about the politics of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, see Politics of North Korea.
Politics of the Republic of Korea

대한민국의 정치 (Korean)
National emblem of the Republic of Korea
Polity typeUnitary presidential
constitutional republic
ConstitutionConstitution of the Republic of Korea
Legislative branch
NameNational Assembly
TypeUnicameral
Meeting placeNational Assembly Building
Presiding officerWoo Won-shik, Speaker of the National Assembly
Executive branch
Head of state and government
TitlePresident
CurrentlyYoon Suk Yeol
AppointerDirect popular vote
Cabinet
NameState Council
LeaderPresident
Deputy leaderPrime Minister
AppointerPresident
HeadquartersYongsan, Seoul
Ministries18
Judicial branch
NameJudiciary of South Korea
Supreme Court
Chief judgeCho Hee-dae
Constitutional Court
Chief judgeLee Jongseok
Separation of powers and the election system of South Korea
This article is part of a series on
Politics of South Korea
Government
Legislature
Executive
Judiciary
Elections
Political parties
Korean conflict
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The politics of South Korea take place in the framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is the head of state, and of a multi-party system. To ensure a separation of powers, the Republic of Korea Government is made up of three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The government exercises executive power and legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature and comprises a Supreme Court, appellate courts, and a Constitutional Court.

Since 1948, the constitution has undergone five major revisions, each signifying a new republic. The current Sixth Republic began with the last major constitutional revision that took effect in 1988. From its founding until the June Democratic Struggle, the South Korean political system operated under a military authoritarian regime, with the freedom of assembly, association, expression, press and religion as well as civil society activism being tightly restricted. During that period, there were no freely elected national leaders, political opposition is suppressed, dissent was not permitted and civil rights were curtailed.

The Economist Intelligence Unit rated South Korea a "full democracy" in 2022.[1][needs update] According to the V-Dem Democracy indices South Korea was 2023 the third most electoral democratic country in Asia.[2] South Korea is often cited as a model of democracy due to its relatively peaceful and internally-driven democratic transition.[3][4][5][6][7]

However, the mid-2000s to mid-2010s are often considered South Korea's backsliding period. Although, some have argued South Korea has hit a democratic ceiling and changes are more characteristic of democratic stagnation in lieu of regression. This took the form of more state involvement (particularly through the Korea Communications Commission or KCC) in media control and less editorial independence among journalists with conservative media owners.[8][9] Overall, political expression lagged behind comparable democracies.[10][11] Additionally, South Korea has very strict election and campaign finance regulations, that includes no door-to-door canvassing and, consequently, some have cited these regulations as barriers to political expression and free and fair elections.[12][13] These changes have largely attributed to South Korea's weak political party structure that emphasizes leaders and, consequently, hyper-presidentialism. Moreover, a right-left ideological divide has been more deeply entrenched into South Korean political society.[14][15][16] However, South Korea is considered to have a strong civil society or simin sahoe manifested through a large number of civic organization that prevented further backsliding via the 2016-2017 Candlelight Demonstrations.[17][14]

Under more recent administrations such as President Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea has taken a stance as a "Global Pivotal State," which involves a greater role in East Asia as a democratic power. Despite its own democratic struggles, South Korea has taken an active role on democracy on the global stage having hosted the 2024 Summit for Democracy and committing to "strengthen coordination on promoting democracy and protecting human rights" at the 2023 Camp David Summit with the U.S. and Japan, bolstering their trilateral relationship.[18]

  1. ^ Democracy Index 2023: Age of Conflict (PDF). Economist Intelligence Unit (Report). 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2024-06-09. Retrieved 2024-07-22.
  2. ^ V-Dem Institute (2023). "The V-Dem Dataset". Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  3. ^ "How South Korea's Authoritarian Past Shapes Its Democracy". thediplomat.com. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  4. ^ "An Unpromising Recovery: South Korea's Post-Korean War Economic Development: 1953-1961". Association for Asian Studies. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  5. ^ Mansfield, Edward D.; Snyder, Jack (1995). "Democratization and the Danger of War". International Security. 20 (1): 5–38. doi:10.2307/2539213. ISSN 0162-2889. JSTOR 2539213.
  6. ^ Lee, Damon Wilson, Lynn (2024-05-02). "South Korea Can Be a Democratic Leader". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2024-05-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Cotton, James (1989). "From Authoritarianism to Democracy in South Korea". Political Studies. 37 (2): 244–259. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.1989.tb01481.x. ISSN 0032-3217.
  8. ^ Min, Byoung Won (2013). "Biting Back Against Civil Society: Information Technologies and Media Regulations in South Korea". Journal of International and Area Studies. 20 (1): 111–124. ISSN 1226-8550. JSTOR 43111518.
  9. ^ Gong, Qian; Rawnsley, Gary (2018). "Media freedom and responsibility in South Korea: The perceptions of journalists and politicians during the Roh Moo-hyun presidency". Journalism. 19 (9–10): 1257–1274. doi:10.1177/1464884916688287. hdl:2381/38770. ISSN 1464-8849.
  10. ^ Haggard, Stephan; You, Jong-Sung (2015-01-02). "Freedom of Expression in South Korea". Journal of Contemporary Asia. 45 (1): 167–179. doi:10.1080/00472336.2014.947310. ISSN 0047-2336.
  11. ^ Son, Byunghwan (2024-04-18). "Consequences of democratic backsliding in popular culture: evidence from blacklist in South Korea". Democratization: 1–25. doi:10.1080/13510347.2024.2343103. ISSN 1351-0347.
  12. ^ You, Jong-sung; Lin, Jiun-Da (2020). "Liberal Taiwan Versus Illiberal South Korea: The Divergent Paths of Election Campaign Regulation". Journal of East Asian Studies. 20 (3): 437–462. doi:10.1017/jea.2020.12. ISSN 1598-2408.
  13. ^ Mobrand, Erik (2015-12-01). "The Politics of Regulating Elections in South Korea: The Persistence of Restrictive Campaign Laws". Pacific Affairs. 88 (4): 791–811. doi:10.5509/2015884791.
  14. ^ a b "Keeping Autocrats at Bay: Lessons from South Korea and Taiwan". Global Asia. Retrieved 2024-05-01.
  15. ^ Im, Hyug Baeg (2004-01-01). "Faltering democratic consolidation in South Korea: democracy at the end of the 'three Kims' era". Democratization. 11 (5): 179–198. doi:10.1080/13510340412331304642. ISSN 1351-0347.
  16. ^ Hur, Aram; Yeo, Andrew (March 2024). "Democratic Ceilings: The Long Shadow of Nationalist Polarization in East Asia". Comparative Political Studies. 57 (4): 584–612. doi:10.1177/00104140231178724. ISSN 0010-4140.
  17. ^ Kim, Andrew Eungi (2006). "Civic activism and Korean democracy: the impact of blacklisting campaigns in the 2000 and 2004 general elections". The Pacific Review. 19 (4): 519–542. doi:10.1080/09512740600984937. ISSN 0951-2748.
  18. ^ House, The White (2023-08-18). "The Spirit of Camp David: Joint Statement of Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the United States". The White House. Retrieved 2024-05-01.

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