Party Politics in Korea

Prof. JeongHun Han

Thursday 14:00-17:00

gurus72@snu.ac.kr

<Course Description>

This course examines Korean political parties theoretically and empirically. It is open to any student who want to improve their understanding of Korean politics. The goals of this course are both to understand the party politics in Korea since 1987 democratization and to scrutinize political science approaches to the study of political parties. Students taking this course are expected to build a strong grasp of theoretical and empirical works and debates in the study of parties and party systems. The course is organized as follows. In the first part, it starts with a brief review of the fundamental questions raised about the study of parties, and then we move on to the central theoretical question of why parties form. In the second part, we will explore party systems from both comparative and historical perspectives. In the third part, we tackle the basic “triad” of Korean parties: parties in the electorate and elections, parties as organization, and parties in government. In the last part, we will conclude with a focus on recent works on Korean party politics.

<Course Requirement>

This course will be based on students' active participation on extensive discussion. So, it is your primary assignments for you to complete the assigned readings and to participate effectively in class discussions each week. Specifically, I would like to ask you to undertake two things. First, for one seminar meeting, you will present an article or set of articles form the assigned readings. The presentation (30 minutes at maximum) should:

1) describe the main themes of the reading

2) explain what is contributions are to our understanding of political parties

3) provide criticism of the study (e.g., theoretical argument, hypotheses, evidence, analysis etc.)

4) raise questions about specific theoretical or empirical issues that you did not understand.

Second, for each meeting, you are required to submit one or two questions or discussion topics by 5 pm on Wednesday. In so doing, you have to justify why such questions or topics are important to be raised or discussed.

Those two requirements must be completed to receive a passing grade in the course. Your final grade will be determined as follows: seminar participation (40%) including one or two in-class presentation, an analytical review of existing literature (30%) and a research design (30%).

<An Analytical Review of Existing Literature>

This will be a paper (roughly 3-5 pages) that reviews the existing literature of your research topic, which will be used in writing a research design. The analytical review is not just to summarize the literature, but to reorganize it for the development of new research questions. Writing this kind of reviewing article may help you develop your own research question and thesis.

<Research Design>

This will be a paper (roughly 5-10 pages) that focuses on a research question of your choice related to the study of political parties. It is not expected for you to actually complete the research for the projects, but the research design would be a good way to begin thinking about potential research paper or dissertation projects. The research design must include the survey of the literature on the research question, the analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of existing work, and the identification of you own research question that is either new, has not yet been well addressed or generalized sufficiently. Also, you have to sketch a methodology for how you can go about addressing the research question. We are going to use our two meetings at the end of this semester for the presentation of your research design (Date TBA).

<Assigned Readings>

The list of readings for each week is developing. The list below the ‘course outline’ is a temporal suggestion.

<Course Outline>

1. September 01	What are parties and why study them?

Schattschneider, Party Government, Chapter1. “In Defense of Political Parties” pp.1-16

Aldrich, Why Parties? Chapter 1. “Politics and Parties in America” pp.3-26

Ware, Alan. 1996. Political Parties and Party Systems. pp.1-13

2. September 08	Why Parties?

Aldrich, Why Parties? Chapter 2. “Why Parties Form?” pp.27-69.

Lapolombara, Joseph, and Myron Weiner. 1990. “The Origin of Political Parties”	In Peter Mair (ed.) The Western European Party System. Oxford University Press. pp.25-30.

Schmitter, Philippe. 2001. “Parties are Not What They Once Were” In Larry	Diamond and Richard Gunther (eds.) Political Parties and Democracy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp.67-89.

Henderson, 1968. chapter 10, “The Search for Cohesion: Political Parties” pp.273-311.

<recommended for further readings>

Gunther, Richard and Larry Diamond. 2001. “Types and Functions of Parties” In	Larry Diamond and Richard Gunther (eds.) Political Parties and Democracy. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp.3-39.

Meguid, Bonnie. “Competition Between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party	Strategy in Niche Party Success” APSR 99(2):347-359.

Fiorina, “Parties and Partisanship: A Forty-Year Retrospective” Political Behavior,	June 2002.

Stokes, Susan. 1999. “Political Parties and Democracy” Annual Review of	Political Science, 2:243-267.

3. September 15	National Holiday

No Class

4. September 22	Parties in the Electorate

Campbell et al. The American Voter, Chapter6, pp.120-145, and chapter7, pp.146-167.

Bartels, “Partisanship and Voting Behavior, 1952-1996” AJPS(2000, January)

Adams, James. 2009. “Moderate Now, Win votes Later: The Electoral Consequences of Parties’ Policy Shifts in 25 Postwar Democracies” JOP 71:678-692.

<recommended for further readings>

Fiorina, Retrospective Voting in American National Elections, Chapter 5.

Bartels, “Beyond the Running Tally” Political Behavior (2002)

Greens and Palmquist, “Of Artifacts and Partisan Instability” AJPS(1990, August)

5. September 29	Korean Parties in the Electorate

Croissant. 2002. “Electoral Systems in Asia as Elements of Consensus and Majoritarian Democracy: Comparing Seven Cases” In Redefining Korean Politics, pp.331-376.

Park. 2002. “The Rules of the Electoral Game for the National Assembly in Democratic Korea: A Comparative Perspective” In Redefining Korean Politics, pp.377-402. (1988-2000)

Park. 1993. “The Fourteenth National Assembly Election in Korea: A Test for the Ruling Democratic Liberal Party” Korea Journal 33(1):5-16.

6. October 06	Party as Organization

Cohen et al. The Party Decides, Chapters1 pp.1-18, chapter 2 pp.19-46, chapter 4 pp.81-106, chapter 7 pp.187-234

7. October 13	Korean Party as Organization

Kim. 1995. “The Formation of the Grand Conservative Coalition” In Rationality and Politics in the Korean Peninsula, pp.53-68, 1990년 신한국당 창당.

8. October 20	Parties in Government

Cooper and Brady, 1981. “Institutional Context and Leadership Style” AJPS

Krehbiel, 2003, “Where is the Party?” BJPS

Strome, Kaare. 2000. Parties at the Core of Government. In R. J. Dalton and M.	P. Watternberg (eds.) Parties Without Partisans: Political Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies. Oxford University Press. pp. 180-207.

9. October 27	Korean Parties in Government

Kang, David C. 2002. Chapter 3 “Institutions: Bureaucrats and Rules” pp.61-95.

Kihl, Young Whan. 1988. “Party Politics on the Eve of a Gathering Storm: The Constitutional Revision Politics of 1986” In Political Change in South Korea, pp.75-90

10. November 03	Party Systems (Comparative)

Duverger, Political Parties, pp.206-254.

Lipset, Seymour Martin and Stein Rokkan. 1967. “Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignments” In P. Mair (ed.) The West European Party System. Oxford University Press. pp.91-138.

Sartori, Giovanni. 1990. “A Typology of Party Systems” In Peter Mair (ed.) The	West European Party System. Oxford University Press. pp.316-350.

Mair, Peter. 2002. “Comparing Party Systems” In Lawrence LeDuc, Richard Niemi, and Pipa Norris (eds.) Comparing Democracies 2. London: Sage.

11. November 10	Party System in Korea

Ahn. 1978. “Korean Political Parties and Political Development: Crucial Elections and the Institutionalization of the Political Party System” Korea Journal 18(1):30-41.

Kwak. 2002. “Open System or Cartelized System? Redefining the Korean Party System after Democratization” In Redefining Korean Politics, pp.403-430.

Chung. 2002. “Party-System Change in Post-Democratization Korea: A Partisan Realignment Perspective”   In Redefining Korean Politics, pp.431-448.

12. November 17	Presentation

Students’ Presentation on the analytical reviews

13. November 24	Political Recruitment and Intra-Party Politics

Desposato, Scott. 2006. “Parties for Rent? Careerism, Ideology, and Party Switching in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies” AJPS 50(1):62-80.

Pippa Norris. 1995. “May’s Law of Curvilinear Disparity Revisited: Leaders, Officers, Members and Voters in British Political Parties” Party Politics 1:29-47.

14. December 01	Political Recruitment in Korea

Han, 1974. “Development of Parties and Politics in Korea(1)” Korea Journal 14(9):37-50.

Han. 1974. “Development of Parties and Politics in Korea” Korea Journal 14(10):41-57.

15. December 08	Presentation

Students’ Presentation on the research designs