Time to change the weird electoral system

Jho Wha-sun
The author is a professor at the Department of Political Science and International Studies at Yonsei University and chair of the Korean Political Science Association.

A crucial legislative election that will shape Korea’s politics for the next two decades is over. The winners and the losers will each be busy preparing post-election measures in pursuit of the will the voters expressed. But the people are still left with an important task that they need to seriously consider after the latest election clearly revealed problems with current political and electoral systems.

First, as seen in past elections, the single-member district system has distorted the will of the people to threaten the very foundation of representative democracy. According to the National Election Commission, the Democratic Party (DP) won some 14.76 million votes (50.5 percent) in constituencies nationwide, while the governing People Power Party (PPP) scored 13.18 million (45.1 percent). Their difference was only 5.4 percentage points. And yet, the DP won 161 seats while the PPP took 90. The disparity in votes scored and seats won is due to the winner-takes-all single-member constituency system.

Second, the single-member district system has perpetuated the two-party system based on regionalism and fueled political polarization. In the latest election, minority parties that tried to reshape the two-party structure had no place. In a system where even a narrow margin is enough to win, elections are destined to descend into extreme confrontation and polarization. It is difficult to expect an aggressive legislature to unite the will of the people to push forward national-level policies for the country’s future.

Third, in the single-member district system, local issues tend to overwhelm the key national agenda. In the latest election, nationwide proposals — such as volatile international affairs, the declining competitiveness of key industries, North Korea’s nuclear weapons and threats, the plummeting birthrate and the super-aging society — received little attention. Election campaigns were filled with appeals to punish opponents and pork barreling promises for each village, not even the entire district.

Because the outcome of an election can be decided by massive votes from one or two neighborhoods, candidates did everything to make pork barreling pledges for each neighborhood. The problem is that these elected lawmakers will decide the future of the 640 trillion won ($458.8-billion) budget and major policies through standing committees of the National Assembly.

Fourth, the current electoral system allows victories in certain districts as long as you win nomination, making the electoral system powerless, as nominations are decided by the will of party leaders. Privatizing a political party that relies on the political style and popularity of an individual politician rather than a clear ideology and policy agenda threatens democracy. In a personalized party, democratic processes and institutions become powerless, and authority is concentrated in the hands of a handful of leaders. If the National Assembly is run this way, the people will suffer.

Through this election process, the two major parties and the National Assembly have proven once again that they are not only unwilling and unable to comply with current election laws, but also incapable of reforming the election system. The provision of the Public Official Election Act that requires a constituency map to be finalized at least a year before the election was ignored, and electoral districts were drawn just 41 days before the election. The flip-flopping of politicians’ promises regarding reforms to the proportional representation system also created satellite parties, tarnishing the meaning of proportional representation.

If the National Assembly cannot revise the laws governing elections and political parties in order to ensure parties and lawmakers faithfully represent the people, we need a new arena of discussion or an external organ to reform the electoral system. Once the 22nd National Assembly opens, a committee outside the legislature should be created as soon as possible to conduct public debates and reach consensus around election system reform plans.

Under the current election system, politicians’ goal is only to get elected — and after they win, national matters are ignored. Career politicians, whose priority is showing loyalty to the party leader with nomination power, are mass produced. We should not entrust them with industrial policies for the next decade, or democratic institutional design and education for the next century.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.