Foreign Policy and South Korean Democracy: The Failure of Party Politics

Hoon Jaung

《Taiwan Journal of Democracy》 1卷2期 (2005/12) Pp. 49-68

https://doi.org/10.29654/TJD.200512.0003

並列摘要

Political parties are engaged in confrontation concerning the newly emerged social division on foreign policy issues that has belatedly risen after fifteen years of democratization in South Korea. Despite continuing, though not thorough, internal reforms, political parties have shown a severe lack of capacity to reflect about and moderate the new foreign policy conflicts. The rise of the new generation, the launching of the Sunshine policy during the 1998-2003 period, and the transition to an information society have contributed to the failure of party politics to deal with increasingly polarized and divisive foreign policy issues. Using three case studies, the dispatch of South Korean troops to Iraq, the ratification of the South Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement, and the Tokdo Island dispute, this essay shows that political parties have been unable to mediate and moderate foreign policy conflicts in newly democratized South Korea. Much weakened party discipline, the tendency toward blame avoidance among national assemblypersons, the rising influence of NGOs, and confrontation politics under divided government have clearly constrained political parties from alleviating foreign policy conflicts in South Korea.

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