A Study On Political Party System In R.O.K: Causes And Models For Changes

The complexity in the evolution of the parties and the party system of ROK is vastly different from that in western countries. The alternating the party system is one of the most important characterizes. How to describe its process and mode is a vital subject of Korean studies. This paper is intended to use external factors, internal units and institutional factors to analyze the alteration in the party system and comb out its evolutionary mode.From the perspective of the historical track of the party system of ROK, it has underwent the following phases: formation, authoritarian period, military rule and democratic transition. The evolutionary mode has manifested different traits in different phases. The influence of international environment in the formation period, political authority in the authoritarian period, the resignation and fight in the military rule period, and the turbulence and continuation in the democratic transition period have all left their marks in history.From the perspective of external factors, the international system, especially the South-North relations, (i.e. the northern wind factor) has played a key role in the formation of the party system of ROK which is characterized as leaning to the conservative side and helped fix its future direction. From the perspective of scio-economic factors, regionalism and class differentiation have ensured a stable state in the conservative the party system. The differentiation and evolution of social factors will lead to a continuation of enlarging regionalism. The party system of ROK will continue to lean to the conservative side and maintain the trend of dynamic change.From the perspective of internal factors, internal units are the important actors promoting the evolution of the party system of ROK. The legal base and status and the organizational structure characteristics have determined the personification of parities of ROK and the blooming factions. Objectively speaking, elites and factions have promoted the integration and disintegration of parties and the evolution and development of the party system. In behavioral mode, elite politics is characterized as power and charismatic dependence while faction politics characterized as integration of the weak and independence of the strong, or the alignment between the weak and the division among the strong. These have contributed to the alteration in the party system of ROK.From the perspective of institutional factors, the formation, change and stability of political rules are the factors influencing the party system. The ever-changing rules have also led to transformation of the party system. The evolution of presidential elections and congressional elections are the manifestations of the evolutionary party system. They have exerted an indirect not decisive influence. Elections have provided a basic framework for the change, limited the scope and time of change, which are also the important factors and basis for observing the alternating parties.On the whole, the evolution of the party system of ROK are a structure-related political phenomenon between the external environment and internal factors. Its motivation force results from the external environment. The actors promoting its change are political man and factions. It can be foreseen that the environmental factors and main actors will stabilize. The pendulum oscillating between the multi-party and two-party system will come to a stop. The party system of ROK will become stabilized.