Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T01:19:38.310Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Historical Institutionalist Approach to Political Party Organization: The Case of South Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

Olli Hellmann
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The existing literature on party organization is deeply divided over the question of how much freedom of choice decision-makers in a party enjoy in relation to their environment. Although the resulting theoretical deadlock seriously weakens our understanding of party formation and change, no attempt has been made to reconcile the different approaches. This article aims to do just that by offering a historical institutionalist perspective on party organization. Studying the development of political parties in South Korea, it argues that party organizations are best understood as strategic responses to electoral markets. Party organizations reproduce and change, as advantaged factions defend the status quo, while disadvantaged factions work towards organizational reform.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , 2011 , pp. 464 - 484
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2011.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

2 See for example Harmel, R., ‘Party Organizational Change. Competing Explanations?’, in Luther, K. R. and Müller-Rommel, F. (eds), Political Parties in the New Europe: Political and Analytical Challenges, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 119–42Google Scholar.

3 van Biezen, I., ‘The Place of Parties in Contemporary Democracies’, West European Politics, 26: 3 (2003), p. 179 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 van Biezen, I., ‘On the Theory and Practice of Party Formation and Adaptation in New Democracies’, European Journal of Political Research, 44 (2005), pp. 147–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 For example Harmel, R. and Janda, K., ‘An Integrated Theory of Party Goals and Party Change’, Journal of Theoretical Politics, 6: 3 (1994), pp. 259–87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 For example Hay, C. and Wincott, D., ‘Structure, Agency and Historical Institutionalism’, Political Studies, 46 (1998), pp. 951–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Sartori, G., Parties and Party Systems. A Framework for Analysis, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1976, vol. 1, p. 63 Google Scholar.

8 H. Kitschelt and S. I. Wilkinson, ‘Citizen–Politician Linkages. An Introduction’, in H. Kitschelt and S. I. Wilkinson (eds), Patrons, Clients, and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 1–48. Two further electoral strategies are charisma and coercion. They are only secondary strategies, though, used in combination with either clientelistic or programmatic strategies: whereas charisma clearly has natural limits, the use of violence carries great personal risk.

9 Hopkin, J., ‘A “Southern Model” of Electoral Mobilisation? Clientelism and Electoral Politics in Spain’, West European Politics, 24: 1 (2001), p. 117 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, emphasis added.

10 Warner, C. M., ‘Political Parties and the Opportunity Costs of Patronage’, Party Politics, 3: 4 (1997), p. 535 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 See P. Mair, ‘Party Organizations: From Civil Society to the State’, in R. S. Katz and P. Mair (eds), How Parties Organize: Change and Adaptation in Party Organizations in Western Democracies, London, Sage, 1994, pp. 1–22.

12 Charisma and coercion as electoral strategies will have similar effects on the party organization, because they do not need large investments into the political party as an abstract institution.

13 Kitschelt and Wilkinson, ‘Citizen–Politician Linkages’, p. 9.

14 Scarrow, S., ‘The “Paradox of Enrolment”: Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Party Memberships’, European Journal of Political Research, 25 (1994), pp. 41–60 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Katz, R. S., ‘The Problem of Candidate Selection and Models of Party Democracy’, Party Politics, 7: 3 (2001), pp. 277–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 R. S. Katz, ‘Party Organizations and Finance’, in L. LeDuc, R. G. Niemi and P. Norris (eds), Comparing Democracies: Elections and Voting in Global Perspective, Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 1996, pp. 107–33.

17 Hay and Wincott, ‘Structure, Agency’.

18 V. Randall, ‘Party Systems and Voter Alignments in the New Democracies of the Third World’, in L. Karvonen and S. Kuhnle (eds), Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Thirty Years After, London, Routledge, 2001, pp. 238–60.

19 J. Robinson and T. Verdier, The Political Economy of Clientelism, CEPR Working Paper 3205, London, Centre for Economic and Policy Research, 2002.

20 Stokes, S. C., ‘Political Clientelism’, in Boix, C. and Stokes, S. C. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 604–27Google Scholar.

21 This is reflected in high party system fragmentation and high electoral volatility.

22 van Biezen, I., Political Parties in New Democracies: Party Organization in Southern and East-Central Europe, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, p. 216 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Shugart, M. S., ‘The Inverse Relationship Between Party Strength and Executive Strength: A Theory of Politician's Constitutional Choices’, British Journal of Political Science, 28 (1998), pp. 1–29 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 Immergut, E. M., ‘The Theoretical Core of the New Institutionalism’, Politics and Society, 26: 1 (1998), p. 20 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Harmel and Janda, ‘Theory of Party Change’.

26 Collier, R. B. and Collier, D., Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1991 Google Scholar.

27 Mahoney, J. and Thelen, K., ‘A Theory of Gradual Institutional Change’, in Mahoney, J. and Thelen, K. (eds), Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power, New York, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 1–37 Google Scholar.

28 The author collected most of the information on party organization contained in this section through interviews with the relevant parties in April 2008.

29 D. C. Kang, Crony Capitalism: Corruption and Development in South Korea and the Philippines, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.

30 Park, C. W., ‘Legislators and their Constituents in South Korea: The Patterns of District Representation’, Asian Survey, 28: 10 (1988), p. 1057 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 P. Ferdinand, ‘Party Funding and Political Corruption in East Asia: The Cases of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan’, in R. Austin and M. Tjernström (eds), Funding Political Parties and Election Campaigns, Stockholm, International IDEA, 2003, p. 193.

32 In addition, one-quarter of the seats would be allocated proportionally in one national constituency, including a seat bonus for the largest party.

33 Kim Jong-pil's party lost nearly all significance in the 2004 National Assembly election, when even Kim Jong-pil himself failed to secure a mandate. The following discussion will therefore mainly focus on the other two Kims' parties.

34 Sonn, H., ‘Regional Cleavage in Korean Politics and Elections’, Korea Journal, 43: 2 (2003), pp. 32–54 Google Scholar.

35 Park, C. Hee, ‘A Comparative Institutional Analysis of Korean and Japanese Clientelism’, Asian Journal of Political Science, 16: 2 (2008), pp. 111–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

36 C. W. Park, ‘Financing Political Parties in South Korea: 1988–1991’, in H. E. Alexander and R. Shiratori (eds), Comparative Political Finance Among the Democracies, Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1994, pp. 182–3.

37 Park, ‘Legislators and their Constituents’, p. 1051.

38 Kim, K. S., ‘Candidate Selection in the 1996 Korean Election’, Korea Observer, 28: 1 (1997), pp. 25–52 Google Scholar.

39 Lee, H., ‘Issues and Campaign Strategies in the 2002 Presidential Election’, Korea Journal 43: 2 (2003), pp. 146–71Google Scholar.

40 Walker, S. and Kang, K. T., ‘The Presidential Election in South Korea, December 2002’, Electoral Studies, 23 (2004), pp. 840–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

41 For a discussion of the ‘blacklisting’ movement see Shin, E. H., ‘The Role of NGOs in Political Elections in South Korea: The Case of the Citizens' Alliance for the 2000 General Election’, Asian Survey, 43: 4 (2003), pp. 697–715 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Gray, K., ‘Challenges to the Theory and Practice of Polyarchy: The Rise of the Political Left in Korea’, Third World Quarterly, 29: 1 (2008), p. 117 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 Steinberg, D. I. and Shin, M., ‘Tensions in South Korean Political Parties in Transition: From Entourage to Ideology?’, Asian Survey, 46: 4 (2006), pp. 517–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

44 Kwon, H. Y., ‘Economic Perceptions and Electoral Choice in South Korea: The Case of the 2007 Presidential Election’, Pacific Review, 23: 2 (2010), pp. 183–201 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

45 Kim, S. H., ‘Korea's Conservatives Strike Back: An Uncertain Revolution in Seoul’, Global Asia, 3: 1 (2008), pp. 78–85 Google Scholar.

46 For instance, prominent figures that were eliminated by the screening committee included former presidential chief of staff Park Ji-won, Kim Hong-up – Kim Dae-jung's second son – and Lee Yong-hee, a four-term lawmaker. All three politicians had been found guilty of accepting bribes from large businesses.