SPEAKING FREELY Promises undermine democracy
in Korea By Van Jackson
Speaking Freely is an Asia
Times Online feature that allows guest writers to
have their say. Please click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
Politicians
lie. This fundamental truth transcends borders,
cultures and political paradigms. Conventional
wisdom holds that, in democracies, promises made
by elected officials during campaigns must be
fulfilled or the politician will not be
re-elected. If the politician can no longer be
re-elected because of term limits, then that
politician's party will inevitably be judged by
the
electorate as if the party itself
were the outgoing politician. In theory, the
people's ability to hold politicians and political
parties accountable for their actions ensures that
the government acts according to the interests of
the people.
In the Republic of Korea
(hereafter Korea) at least, this conventional
wisdom is wrong. Two peculiarities in the Korean
democratic model limit the accountability of its
politicians to the electorate. Both Korea's
constitutional mandate of a single five-year term
for its president and Korea's practice of
dissolving, merging and creating new political
parties undermine the Korean people's ability to
hold the government accountable. Although limited
accountability may be consistent with Korea's
authoritarian past, it scarcely has a place in a
government that desires to accurately represent
the interests of its people.
In Korea's
most recent presidential election, this week,
popular conservative candidate Lee Myung-bak rode
to victory on a campaign platform dubbed "747"
because it promises to increase Korea's gross
domestic product (GDP) growth to 7% annually,
double Korea's GDP per capita to US$40,000
annually, and make Korea the world's
seventh-largest economy.
An audaciously
ambitious set of campaign promises in any country,
Lee's 747 plan for the Korean economy nevertheless
helped him get elected as it tapped into the
current national sentiment. According to a DongA
Ilbo opinion poll taken in July, the three most
important issues for Koreans when deciding whom to
elect were economic growth, unemployment and
social security - all three of which are
economic-related issues.
A structure in need of
tweaking While it should hardly be
surprising that a winning politician's campaign
message coincides with the highest priorities of
the people, there should be little expectation
that Lee will actually fulfill his lofty promises,
due partly to the inability of Korean presidents
to be re-elected and partly to a Korean political
culture that accepts the frequent dissolving and
reforming of political parties. These two
political structural problems would be no problem
at all if they were not simultaneously part of the
same political structure.
The single
five-year term limit for the Korean president is a
historical extension of the revised 1981
constitution, which was drafted under the military
dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan. In this
constitution, the president is limited to a single
seven-year term limit. In the context of
contemporary Korean political history, this move
was an incremental step toward transforming Korea
into a fledgling democracy.
Like most
autocratic rulers, Chun was reluctant to
relinquish power and the revised constitution
reflected as much. Whereas most democracies allow
their heads of state to be elected multiple times
with term limits often lasting less than five
years, the Korean constitution continues to
reflect its authoritarian past, differing little
from parameters detailed by one of its former
dictators.
This issue is compounded by a
Korean political culture where liberal and
conservative parties are in a seemingly constant
state of flux. Members of the liberal Open Uri
Party recently joined with other liberal groups to
form a coalition known as the United New
Democratic Party. Only a few years ago, the Open
Uri Party itself was a spin-off of the liberal
Millennium Democratic Party.
The
phenomenon is not unique to liberal parties
either. The conservative Grand National Party,
formed only in 1997, was an amalgamation of
various conservative groups, most of whom could
trace their political lineage to the autocratic
elites prior to Korea's democratization in 1987.
The shape-shifting nature of Korean
political parties serves the unambiguous purpose
of separating upcoming electoral candidates from
unpopular parties and politicians. This inherently
weakens the ability of voters to hold politicians
accountable for their actions.
Legacies of
unresponsiveness Under authoritarian
rule, military dictator Park Chung-hee made many
promises to the Korean people, arguably the most
important of which was to return to being a
full-time member of the military after the coup
was completed. Considering Park remained the
president of Korea from 1961 until his
assassination in 1979, it seems reasonably clear
that he failed to make good on this promise.
Although it should surprise few that a
dictator - even one whose legacy is now revered by
many Koreans - would fail to keep his promises to
his people, examples abound of failed campaign
promises under democratic rule as well. Starting
in 1988 under Korea's inaugural democratic
administration, president Roh Tae-woo successfully
delivered on several promises from his campaign,
but one key promise he never fulfilled was to
appoint opposition party members to cabinet
positions in his administration.
In the
campaign of 2002, President Roh Moo-hyun was
elected on a campaign of somewhat opportunistic
anti-Americanism. The impracticality of his pledge
to distance his administration from the United
States was quickly replaced with pushes for a
bilateral free trade agreement and the deployment
of Korean troops to support the US effort in Iraq.
Roh also promised during his campaign to require
construction companies to publicly list costs of
building apartments only to later renege.
A need to temper optimism
If anybody can achieve economic goals as ambitious
as the new 747 plan it is surely president-elect
Lee Myung-bak, given his track record in the
business world and his rags-to-riches life story.
Among the available presidential candidates, Lee's
background certainly makes him the most qualified
to do so. But it is unreasonable for anyone to
expect this one-time mayor of Seoul to actually
hit the targets he promised the Korean people,
particularly with an ongoing corruption scandal
following him into the Blue House. He may have
been a "bulldozer" in the construction industry,
but he will likely soon learn that bureaucracy is
far less malleable.
Koreans are
experiencing a brief period of political euphoria
as a genuinely popular candidate has made them
grand promises of jobs, growth and renewal. But
this joy should not obfuscate the long-term
reality of their situation: a country where the
government makes promises to the people it has no
obligation to keep.
Van Jackson is a
senior consultant in the Organization and Strategy
Practice at Booz Allen Hamilton and an adjunct
professor of East Asian History at the University
of Maryland, University College. He holds a Master
of Science in International Relations with a
concentration in Asian Affairs from Troy State
University.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Speaking
Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows
guest writers to have their say.
Please click
hereif you are interested in
contributing.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
