ABSTRACT
This chapter provides essential background information on contemporary Korean political history, highlighting the constant characteristics and cleavages of the political system, before and after democratization. The scope of the chapter is to identify the structural preconditions that paved the way for both Kim Dae-jung’s electoral success and difficulties in implementing political reforms. Some of these difficulties are rooted in Korea’s post-war history, including, as will be shown in the following pages, factionalism and personalism, blurred ideological differences among various political actors, and the presence of large business conglomerates (Jaebeols). What I will demonstrate in this chapter is how these factors emerged in Korean politics and how they affected the development (or, better, the underdevelopment) of the country’s political system. Along with a brief discussion of the six Republics – from 1948 to 1992 – the chapter covers in more detail three administrations: Roh Tae-woo (1988–1992), Kim Young-sam (1993–1997), and the emergence of coalition-building before the Kim Dae-jung (1998–2003) tenure. The chapter is structured as follows. The first section provides a general historical background which covers the period from 1948 (when the Republic of Korea was established) until the start of democratization in 1987 (end of the ‘Fifth Republic’). Section two delineates the Korean party system during the period of democratic consolidation (1988–1997) and discusses the formation of political coalitions during the Sixth Republic and prior to the start of the Kim Dae-jung administration. Finally, the conclusion identifies the main characteristics of the Korean political system.
