We have examined South Korean constitution, history [INAUDIBLE] evolution and key features. But let's spend time in the Korean government organization, the table, the feature which I presented is about the South Korean government organization chart. It's simply about the executive branch. We have a president. The president has two major assistants. One is the chief of staff. And another one is Nation Security Council and each head has Senior Presidential Secretaries. And then, as you can see here, one of the most important things is the National Intelligence Service under the President. Board of Audit and Inspection. It's called the Geomsawon the most powerful organisation in terms of general accounting okay. And then we have a career communications commission. Those are the major organizations. And we also quite large number of ministries. I don't have to call the specific. Ministry of Public Safety and Security, Ministry of Personnel Management, Ministry of Government Legislation. Ministry of Food and Drug, Safety and all these kinds of things. They in fact work with the prime minister, okay. Those are kind of ministry level ones, okay but here I'm missing in this figure that the legislative branch and a judiciary branch. But when you talk about Korean government you've got to talk about this executive branch and legislative branch and judiciary branch and executive branch. The legislative branch will have a speaker of National Assembly and the deputy speakers, okay? And also it has own, National Assembly Budget Office. And also National Assembly in what you call the legislative [INAUDIBLE] agents and often library of National Assembly. It's very similar to the American US Congress, and the judicial branch, who have the Supreme Court and the Peace Court and ordinary courts. But in terms of prosecution, it belongs to the of Ministry of Justice, okay? Therefore, prosecutors belong to the objective branch. But court system has totally autonomous random under the rubric of the judiciary branch. And then, one of the key features of the Korean government. And obviously South Korea is well known for its so-called Imperial Presidency. And National Assembly has been labeled as rubber stamp. What is meant by Imperial presidency? It simple means the executive dominance. President is supposed to be checked and balanced by legislative branch and executive branch, the judicial branch and civil society. But given the past tradition Korean President tend to be above. Branch, judicial branch and civil society. The reason why we call the objective dominance. It has been contested but this imperial nature present in South Korea. Comes from kind of history inertia built in Korean political system. And also president has police organization and National Intelligence Organization and also President has quite extensive monitoring system. Which become source of power. And plus, President has all the financial resources, budgetary allocations. Because of those reasons president tend to be imperial. And also the president used to be in a kind of a symbolic or actual head of the ruling party. The president controls the ruling party. President controls the resources and money. President controls the personal appointment. And President has secret intelligence in apparatus, combined all together President in South Korea has become literally imperial Which has become source of critique from all side. How about legislative branch? Korean National Assembly has a nickname of Rubber Stamp. But in the past most of the legislative abuse came from the objective branch. And legislative branch and controls information. National Assembly has a very weak step system okay. Unlike the United States and other countries. Investigative and research function of National Assembly has been fundamentally limited, therefore [INAUDIBLE] executive branch tend to dominate over there in the legislative branch. Recently that has been changing, okay, since the democratic transition in 1987. The legislative branch has become much more offensive in pushing forth in the introduction of the new bills, okay. However, there was a built in weakness of the National Assembly. The usually majority of the majority seat of the ruling assembly and usually belongs to ruling party. Then as I pointed out before, ruling party is controlled by the President. Okay? And that is why President control to ruling party. Ruling party then controls the legislative branch and as a result, National Assembly has become kind of servant of executive branch. There is ongoing debate, what should be the relative autonomy of the legislative branch. And one of the reason why there has been weak National Assembly Is because, political parties are rather weak, okay? It is usually said, that South Korean political parties, do not have members, due paying members. Due paying members are very much limited, okay? And incoming members of national assembly have their own supports, and they become the members of each party. But they are not in the institutionalized. For example, if you go to United States and university professors and students, they have a very clear party affiliation. And they would become the registered voters for Republican party or Democratic party. But in the case of South Korea, you can’t really find university professors who are members of national, members of political party. Other than very progressive party, but just this party. Most professors and students are rather indifferent political parties. They do not become members of political parties. Likewise, political parties do not have a very solid constitute. And has something to do with the lack of party platforms and ideology of each political party. party preference and ideology of each political party. But anyhow, political parties without due-paying members have become major source of problem in South Korea, okay? Once political parties are weak. Then they failed to articulate, failed to aggregate interest from these citizens and articulate those interest to the governments, to the national assembly has been very, very weak and dysfunctional, okay? And also, judiciary branch has been relatively weak, okay? Occurrence with constitution, judicial branch is supposed to exercise the [INAUDIBLE] and plays a very important role in making check and balance on the legislative branch and the executive branch. It is true, since the Democratic transition in 1987, judicial branch has become more autonomous than before and it's true. But still, the president controls prosecutor's office. Okay. Therefore, in terms of prosecution, the objective branch has the upper hand and also judges even though they are totally independent, okay. Like for example in order to become members of constitutional court, in order to become members of supreme court, okay. They are to of a president. Therefore, judges not want to make kinds of confrontational attitude to the president executive branch. That is why there is somewhat relative weakness of the judicial branch but, in the past, during the authoritarian regime Like the 1970s and the 1980s when the judges were nothing but servants to the executive branch. Because of that public image, all Korean citizens believed that the judicial branch is very weak. But judges in Korea tend be very conservative. Conservative and judges tend to show the pattern of a conformity with the executive branch. There has been somewhat the weak aspect judicial branch in South Korea. And also with regards to the government and civil society we can simply take the strong state versus a weak society. Of course South Korea civil society has become extremely more vocal and active since democratic transition in 1987. But still, a lot of nongovernment organizations, they depend on subsidies from the government. They tend to depend on the government. Therefore their voice has been somewhat tainted. While controlled by the objective branch. Therefore society, civil society, has been relatively weak. Despite recent upsurge. And the state tend to be strong. Therefore balance of power between the state and society had been somewhat asymmetrical or skewed. Here, you can clearly see now, in theory. Okay? They just are called principle agent mode. Then in democratic politics, what are the principles, and what are agent? Obviously as you can see in this figure, citizens are- Voters are principal then voter becomes a mass of particular parties, then particular parties become master, and then legislative branch become the agent and then legislative branch becomes the principle and the executive branch present become an agent. And present become the principle and bureaucrats become agent. Likewise, from citizens through the political party legislative branch, executive branch and bureaucracy. There is a kind of circular control in terms of principal and agent. But that is under the situation of ideal democracy. But in the case of Korea, that was not the case. There was a kind of disarticulation between voters and political parties. And political parties are virtually, even though it's supposed to be principle ruling party for example, controlled by executive. Instead of legislative branch playing the role of principle, in actual reality there is a kind of pattern. The president executive, top executive becomes principle and basically branch becomes agent. Therefore, ideally speaking principal agent starting from the bottom voters political party, legislative branch, executive branch and bureaucracy. In reality there is a reverse pattern. Okay. And it is one of the weakness of a Korean political system. Some scholars argue that the Korean Democratic system is not real Democratic system. It is illiberal Democracy. But I don't agree with that argument. But still, there is ongoing legacies of past Authoritarian tradition in Korean politics and therefore, to make a full democracy, we have a long way to go. It is a current reality of government structure in South Korea.
