Party System Institutionalization Without Parties: Evidence from Korea. (April 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hellmann, Olli
• Is Part Of: Journal of East Asian studies. Volume 14:Number 1(2014)
• Page Start: 53
• Page End: 84
• Publication Date: 2014-04
• Subjects: South Korea, -- party system institutionalization, -- political party organization, -- voting behavior, -- electoral volatility, -- programmatic linkages; East Asia -- Periodicals; East Asia -- Politics and government -- Periodicals; East Asia -- Economic conditions -- Periodicals; East Asia -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; 950.05
• DOI: 10.1017/S1598240800009589
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1598-2408

Abstract

Abstract : Formally institutionalized party organization is usually considered a prerequisite for the development of programmatic linkages between parties and voters. However, in this article I show that political parties in South Korea have succeeded in stabilizing interparty competition through programmatic linkages without making any significant efforts to build a formal organizational base. In fact, it could be argued that South Korea is a "partyless" democracy, as political parties get easily captured by the interests of ambitious politicians, thus failing to establish themselves as independent actors. I therefore make a more general argument about the concept of party system institutionalization: we need to rethink the current practice of aggregating the different attributes of party system institutionalization into a single scale, as these attributes do not seem to be connected in a linear fashion.