Reforming Korean Democracy

By Andy Jackson

The 18th National Assembly has taken its first baby step toward election reform. Let's hope there will be many more such steps.

Once again, the National Assembly has taken up the cause of voting rights for Korean residents overseas after being required to do so by a Constitutional Court ruling in June of 2007.

This time, the majority and minority parties agreed that most of the roughly three million adult Koreans living overseas will have the right to vote in presidential and National Assembly proportional representation elections. Unfortunately, overseas Koreans will not be allowed to vote in local or National Assembly district elections under the proposed law.

The voting rights will be limited to just two of Korea's four elections because there is no voter registration system for general elections in Korea. Instead, Korean citizens who register their residency at their local district office (as required by law) are added to the local resident list, which doubles as the voter roll. They are removed from the list when they leave the district.

The proposed overseas voting law is certainly a step in the right direction, but should go further to allow voters to maintain their voting rights in the last district where they were registered.

While the National Assembly is at it, there are several other areas of election reform they should consider. Whatever changes they make to the election calendar and system, they need to carefully consider how they will affect the operation of government and the reposefulness of government officials to voters.

They should reopen the case for synchronizing presidential and National Assembly elections.

Under the current system, the president is elected in December every five years and members of the National Assembly elected in April every four years. Elections for local offices are also held every four years at the midpoint of the National Assembly terms.

The unsynchronized terms mean that the president is sometimes elected a few months before National Assembly elections, sometimes a few months after, and sometimes in the middle of legislative terms, creating an element of instability in Korean politics, as there is no systematic ``rhythm" between executive and legislative transitions.

Former President Roh Moo-hyun and his Uri Party (now the Democratic Party) proposed synchronizing the elections and giving the president an opportunity to run for a second term starting with the next president elected after him. The idea never got off the ground because the reform requires a change to the Constitution and the Grand National Party, fearing the proposal was somehow against their interests, would have none of it.

With the next presidential and National Assembly elections both scheduled to take place in 2012 (although eight months apart), having elections every four years for both branches of government is an idea that should be looked at again.

The original proposal called for the presidency and all the National Assembly seats to be filled in the same election every four years. While certainly an improvement over the current situation, that could very well cause wild swings in public policy from election to election, as the incoming president would likely bring in a solid majority of supporters in the legislature on his coattails, a formula likely to create regular unchecked domination of two branches of government by one party (as Korea is experiencing now).

A more balanced approach would be to have some seats of the National Assembly filled in elections concurrent with the presidential election, while the rest are filled in mid-term elections, giving voters a chance to alter the make-up of the legislature in response to their views on the president's performance or other issues.

To emphasize national issues, the legislature's proportional representation seats could be filled on the same day that the president is elected, perhaps with the proportion of PR seats increasing from 56 of the 299 seats to 99.

The single-member district seats would be filled on the same day as local elections near the midpoint of the presidential term. In addition to providing a potential check on presidential power, such an arrangement would increase the salience of local issues and constituent service in the elections.

Alternating legislative terms would also increase accountability to voters within the legislature, since a portion of legislators would always be no more than two years away from their next election.

The parties should also be encouraged or required to choose local and single-member district National Assembly candidates locally, rather than have them selected by central candidate committees, which could be accomplished within the current voting system through either local party caucuses or open primaries. The change would likely increase the responsiveness of legislators to the concerns of people in their districts and make them more independent of party bosses.

Taken together, those reforms would likely increase accountability and encourage moderation in both the administration and the legislature. If they somehow help reduce the number of fights in the halls of the National Assembly, then so much the better.

Andy Jackson teaches American government in the Lakeland College bridge program at Ansan College, Gyeonggi Province. He can be reached at andyinrok@lycos.com.