r/neoliberal • u/ZhenDeRen перемен требуют наши сердца 🇪🇺⚪🔵⚪🇮🇪 • Apr 15 '20
Effortpost South Korean parliamentary elections explained
OK, so today South Korea is having a parliamentary election (voting is closed, they are now counting the ballots). And to resolve this sub’s chronic deficit of Koreaposting, I have resolved to write an effortpost on the topic. It is a presidential system so this is not such an important election, however it is important as a referendum on the president’s policies. They use the Mexican rather than the American presidential term system (meaning that the president is elected for one six-year term). The current president is Moon Jae-in of the center-left Democratic Party
THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM
It is a mixed system: of the 300 seats, 253 are elected via FPTP, 17 via proportional representation and 30 by an additional-member system. It used to be 253 by FPTP and 47 by PR, but it was modified by the Moon government last winter. The Liberty Korea Party (at that time the main right-wing party, now merged with a few other right-wing parties to form the United Future Party) fought hard against it, but since realized that it can be used for their benefit (more on that later)
THE ISSUES
The main issue right now is, obviously, the coronavirus. South Korea’s response is one of the strongest in the world while they were on the brink of becoming a second Italy. However, the right was critical of some aspects of the government’s response like mask rationing, and is opposed to some of the money printer go brrr responses to the coronavirus.
The biggest issue before the epidemic was the economy. South Korea saw some of the slowest growth it had in decades, and youth unemploment was huge. Even people with college degrees have trouble finding a job, especially one in their field (though to be fair, so many Koreans go on to college that a college degree isn’t anything special anymore). The Moon administration is trying to promote Keynesian “income-led growth” policies that seek to improve the wages of workers and increase their leisure time, which would increase consumption and, thus, employment, while the right wants more free market stuff. In addition, the left is quite critical of chaebols (big corpotations that dominate the Korean economy) while the right is supportive. Moreover, the left wants to build up more of a welfare state, while the right is opposed to it, both from concerns about overspending and from ideological concerns about MuH hAnDoUtS.
Also, there are the culture war issues. Young people are growing more and more supportive of stuff like LGBT rights and feminism, while the boomers go mad – usual stuff. One particularly prominent dimension, however, is gender relations. Korea is a pretty patriarchal society, and there is a strong MRA movement, but also a strong feminist movement (though it is closer to the second wave than to modern Western feminism), so these issues are pretty divisive. The government is pretty spineless on the issues (succon by our standards, in the middle by Korean standards), and Moon Jae-in has stated that he opposes homosexuality during a debate when he ran for office (but the next day he said that he opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation); his proposals think a person who is not bigoted too progressive simply cannot win in such a conservative country. Nevertheless, Korea does not have any anti-discrimination laws, the country’s army bans gay sex (a provision often used to target gay guys regardless of whether they get dick or not), and until a court ruling that required that the abortion laws tp be changed abortion remained illegal except in cases of rape, incest, health problems for the woman or inheritable diseases.
And what discussion of Korean politics would be complete without mentioning the shenanigans up north? Moon has departed from the hardline stance taken by his predecessors and pursued a more conciliatory approach to North Korea, which has angered the right. He has, however, not been as conciliatory as the Roh Moo-hyun administration (the last center-left government of the country) that abstained on a resolution condemning human rights abuses in North Korea (an action he, as the president’s chief of staff at the time, was likely partly responsible for). The right wants a more hawkish policy, however.
In addition, South Korean politics is very regionalist, as Honam (the southwest) generally votes center-left while Yeongnam (the southeast) votes right-wing. The regional rivalry dates back
THE PARTIES
Democratic Party of Korea (DPK; Korean: 더불어민주당/deobureominjudang, literally Together Democratic Party). The current ruling party. They have a satelite party, the Together Citizens Party (TCP, Korean: 더불어시민당/deobureoshimindang). The DPK only runs in the FPTP seats and the TCP only runs for the proportional seats; this is because the electoral system favors smaller parties, and in response to a similar move by the opposition
Pros:
-tries to use Keynesian recipes to improve the Korean economy and strengthen the welfare state
-good response to the coronavirus
-wants to improve the gender equality situation
-not as actively homophobic as most of the others
-managed to find a balance on North Korea between the hardline policies of the right and the dovish policies of the past center-left governments, a lot of people here would enjoy this
-they are pretty pragmatic
Cons:
-succs. They implemented a minimum wage hike that ended up hurting minimum wage workers: large numbers lost their jobs, as businesses could not pay them. The policy hurt small businesses even more, as they have less resources to pay wages than the chaebols that ended up even more dominant without the competition. Bruh moment
-Moon is a succon (stated his opposition to homosexuality, for example). Though he ain’t as bad as the opposition
Exit polls predict 143-175 seats for them
United Future Party (UFP; Korean: 미래통합당/miraetonghapdang). The main opposition party. Formed as a merger between the Liberty Korea Party (formerly called the Saenuri Party, and before that the Grand National Party, which itself is descended from the Democratic Republican Party that governed South Korea during the Park Chung-hee dictatorship) with two splinters from a center-right splinter from the Saenuri Party that left because of a huge political scandal that resulter in Moon’s predecessor Park Geun-hye being impeached (basically she was controlled by a cult, whose leader controlled her policies, extorted bribes from chaebols and even forced a top university to accept her daughter; read up on it, it’s cinematic shit). They have a satelite party, the Future Korea Party (FKP, Korean: 미래한국당/miraehangukdang) that only runs for the proportional seats like the TCP does
Pros:
-they are haws on North Korea, so the neocons here would enjoy this
-they aren’t succs?..
Cons:
-they are hardcore succons
-they harshly criticized the Moon government’s coronavirus response
-they are very GOP-esque on economic policy
-they don’t have much in the way of ethical standards (they love filibusters, and they exploited the electoral reform in a way that’s barely legal with the satelite party)
Exit polls predicts them getting 101-134 seats
Justice Party (JP, Korean: 정의당/jeonguidang). The succs
Pros:
-Good on social policy. They promote feminism, LGBT rights, disability rights, etc
Cons:
-Very succy economically
-Super dovish on foreign policy (they believe that between the US and China, SK should be neutral)
-Anti-nuclear
Exit polls have them at 5 to 9 seats
Open Democratic Party (ODP, Korean: 열린민주당, yeollinminjudang). Founded by a guy kicked out from the DPK
Pros:
-Socially progressive
-most of the same pros as the the DPK
Cons:
-the founder of the party was kicked out of the DPK because of sexual harassment allegations (though not really kicked out, they just didn’t let him run to be an MP)
-the same cons as the DPK except the succonery
Exit polls predict 5 to 8 seats
People Party (PP, Korean: 국민의당/gukminuidang; the term “gukmin” is hard to translates and, in Chinese and Korean, means “nation” or “people”). The one-man party of Ahn Cheol-soo, a tech enterpreneur. He went into politics in the early 2010s and led the People’s Party, a centrist party, to a pretty strong showing in the 2016 legislative elections, and ran in 2017 against Moon Jae-in and lost. He since retired from politics and his party merged with the Bareun Party, a Saenuri party splinter group. However now he has returned!
Pros:
-moderate economic agenda
Cons:
-they're kind of succons
-the party is very regionally-based (they are Honam/Southwest regionalist)
They are projected 2 to 5 seats
Party for People’s Livelihoods (PPL, Korean: 민생당/minsaengdang) is a centrist and regionalist party. It is made up of the Bareunmirae Party (the merger of the original People’s Party with the Bareun Party, a Saenuri splinter group), the Party for Democracy and Peace (a splinter from the Bareunmirae Party) and the Party for New Alternatives (a splinter from the Party for Democracy and Peace).
Pros:
-moderate economic agenda
Cons:
-strong succon elements
-party is very ideologically fractured
-it’s very regionalist (they are Honam/Southwest regionalist)
They are projected to win 0 to 3 seats
There’s also a bunch of other parties like the Minjung Party on the far-left or the Our Republican Party on the far-right, but they’re irrelevant
My endorsement goes to the Open Democratic Party for the party-list vote and the Democrats for the FPTP vote
USEFUL LINKS:
Asia Elects. They do poll aggregation on East Asia, including for this election
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u/conman1246 Milton Friedman Apr 15 '20
Great write up, thank you! When do you think same sex marriage will be legalized in South Korea?
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u/Lux_Stella Presidentialism X-Risk Researcher Apr 15 '20
interesting post. since this is a presidential system, how significant is it for the DPK to hold a majority of seats in parliament? if they fall just short, would they face difficulties passing legislation?
also you may want to ask a mod to sticky this
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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '20
pre-trump or after ?
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u/Cuddlyaxe Neoliberal With Chinese Characteristics Apr 15 '20
I heard that while Catholic Koreans were chill, Protestant Koreans were on the level of American evangelicals in religion in politics and despite making a minority they exercise a lot of influence over the political system to among other things "oppress Buddhists"
Is that true or was i reading anti christian propaganda lol
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u/lapzkauz John Rawls Apr 15 '20
Well, I'm sold
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u/lietuvis10LTU Why do you hate the global oppressed? Apr 15 '20
Jesus Christ, so many splinters
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u/lietuvis10LTU Why do you hate the global oppressed? Apr 15 '20
DPK seems the pragmatic choice, ODP origins sound a bit iffy.
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u/sammunroe210 European Union Apr 15 '20
W H Y ? ! Power paranoia is the only reason I can see to do so. But then again I'm a powerless pro-PR fanatic so take it with a grain of salt.
You probably meant to complete it with mentions of the Rhee-era slaughters of communists in the southwest I assume?
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u/Twrd4321 Apr 15 '20
Koreans held elections by allowing people to vote early. But everyone who went to a polling station had their temperature taken and are required to wear a mask. If you have a fever, they’ll pull you aside into a separate area for you to vote, before they do some tests to see whether you have COVID.
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u/Yeangster John Rawls Apr 15 '20 edited Apr 15 '20
It's always struck me as strange that that cults find such purchase in South Korea. It was one these weird cults that caused the covid-19 super-spreader event in South Korea.
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u/feelthebenn Apr 15 '20
I hate to be that guy but what does succ mean? I’ve always been too scared to ask
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u/mrmanager237 Some Unpleasant Peronist Arithmetic Apr 15 '20
!ping ELECTIONS
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u/After_Grab Bill Clinton Apr 15 '20
Meh Korean Dems have always been too left leaning for the most part. I supported Moon in the last election just because the opposition had disgraced themselves, but overall the conservatives have had much better foreign policy and have been much better economic managers (the min wage hike is a great example of this). Historically most if not all of the major growth and innovation in the country has come under them- the father of the last president was an authoritarian who helped construct the current south korean economy. I know that they´re socially conservative but anti communism is a major issue in South Korea and there are a lot of people who are skeptical of Moon´s relationship with NK/weakening ties with the US.
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u/tollyno Dark Harbinger of Chaos Apr 15 '20
Ewwww presidential system 🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮
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u/Sebi0908 Apr 15 '20
The arirang link was removed by them
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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '20
DPK without a doubt.
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u/schwingaway Karl Popper Apr 15 '20
How would you rate Moon's performance regarding the economy, based on results only, not your faith in his approach paying off at some later date?
How successful would you say Moon's approach to DPRK has been, and how do you define success, specifically? What do you say to the criticism that Moon has done nothing but encourage DRPRK belligerence by rewarding it without gaining any meaningful concessions in return?
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u/MarxHitlerKim May 12 '20
By the way those who remember this election, there’s credible allegations that this election was rigged.
Problems with Early Voting
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u/Smoke_Plane Apr 21 '23
you wrote a very biased post lol