ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

The Korean political party system has been established as a limited competitive system since the Third Republic, which actively legislated a series of acts on parties, with particular emphasis on their control and regulation. It has been maintaining legal and institutional continuity even after the democratization in 1987. Despite the electoral volatility and frequent reshuffling of parties, the Korean party system has maintained a “de facto two-party system,” due to the legal and institutional structure, put in place by authoritarian governments. Park Chung-hee established the de facto two party system by introducing party-state framework in constitutional amendment and legislated Political Parties Act and National Assembly Elections Act, both regulatory in nature. Chun Doo-hwan stabilized the system by instituting state subventions allocated largely to major two parties. In particular, the minimum seat requirement that a party must meet to maintain its floor-negotiating status in the National Assembly has been guaranteeing the vested interests of the two major parties. The paper calls for a fundamental reform of the authoritarian legal-institutional system that promotes the cartelization of the Korean party system.

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