Hello, how are you? Today, we'll talk about political institutions in South Korea. Before we get into political institutions in South Korea, let us a bit talk about what is meant by institution. Institution simply refers to the rules of the game in a society or, more formally, are the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction. That is a definition given by Douglass North. Dr. North is a very famous institutional economist. What he's really talking about institution is that institution is the framework within which human interactions take place. Institutions can be formal or informal rules or organization for governance. If you can simply, very simple terms. Constitution is a perfect example of institution or property law or contract law. But Douglass North argues that the depending on an institutional arrangement, certain countries economic performance can vary. For example, look at countries like in the Middle East. In old days, there was no formal definition on property right. Therefore, rulers can interfere with private ownership of properties. On the other hand, if you look at Europe, private properties, in fact, is non-violable. It is like having a given right for human beings. In a society where private properties is well protected vis-a-vis countries in which private properties are easily violated by a ruler. The economic performance can be judged in very different forms. As to former, economic performance is much better, to the latter, economic performance has been lagging. Likewise, institutions can determine the degree of economic performance in given countries. And institutional economies, they usually argue that institution has something to do with the transaction cost. The more the transparency is lacking, the transaction cost would be much higher. Also institution has something to do with the flow of information. In a society where institutions are transparent, and it would be easy to have access to information. In their society, information flow would be readily accessible. Therefore, economic performance would be very high. Likewise, institution really shapes patterns of human behavior and resulting performance. Then what is meant by political institutions? Political institution can be defined as an institutional or organizational arrangement for political governance or simply forms of government. Formally speaking, political institution is crystallized in constitution. Or a country like United Kingdom, customary law, it can be available, too. But however, most countries regard the constitution as a basic recipe for governance. Therefore, for example, go back to 18th century France. There was a French revolution toward the end of 18th century. And political regime before the revolution is called the Ancien Regime. On the other hand, French government after the French revolution is called the Nouveau Regime. Here regime, regime, in French term, is a recipe. Regime results from the titled constitution. Whenever there's a change of constitution, we usually call the new regime. Therefore, the new regime that embodies a set of what? Norms, principles, rules and procedure towards, therefore, political governance. Therefore, constitution would be ultimate form of political institution in a given country. Then what are the major issues involving political institutions or constitutional arrangement? Obvious most important thing is [FOREIGN], the spirit of law. The most important thing is check and balance amongst three branches of government, legislative branch, executive branch, and judiciary branches. For example, United States is well known for check and balance among three branches of government. Legislative branch, executive branch, and judiciary branch have their own autonomous realm. And each authority is constitutionally guaranteed. But look at the case of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia does not have constitution. Saudi Arabia argues that they have a constitution called Sharia, Islamic law, but Islamic law is a kind of collection of rules and legal interpretations of Islamic tradition. Of course, the Quran and Sunnah, the Hadith and other Islamic legal traditions, but Saudi Arabia does not have constitutions. There are not clear distinctions amongst three branches of the government. Of course, Saudi Arabia still has political institution, but I would say that they're informal institution. But in the case of US and most contemporary countries have great well clearly defined institutional arrangement. Another interesting debate on the constitution has something to do with the power arrangement. Power arrangement usually invokes presidential system versus parliamentary system. Look at the case of United States, Germany. Germany is a parliamentary system. US is a presidential system. South Korea is a presidential system. Japan is parliamentary system. That means what? Power lies in the legislative branch in the case of parliamentary system. In the case of presidential system, all the governance of the nation is empowered through executive branch. But there are some kinds of eclectic model. It is the French model. It's a dual power structure. In the case of France, France has both president and prime minister. It is done with the division of labor between president and prime minister. It is dualistic power arrangement, it's possible. Another important aspect of constitutional debate in both electoral system and representative power, whether suffrage system is universal or limited. For example, about 70, 80 years ago, females didn't have a voting right. It was not universal suffrage. Now blacks didn't have a suffrage in the United States until 1960s. But it is constitutionally defined. Electoral system, electoral district system. Provisions on electoral district system is also embodied in the constitution, and also, most importantly, rights and duties, what are the provisions in liberty, equality and welfare. They are all embodied in constitution. If we interpret what should be the range of liberty, equality liberty and how should we implement them in real political life, we always make a reference to constitution. Likewise, a constitution becomes most important guide for political governance in a given countries.
