Political Structural Analysis On Democratic Transitional Process In South Korea

In the 1960s, president Park Chung-hee began to carry out authoritarianism in South Korea. However, authoritarianism declined gradually in the 1980s. On June 29th 1987, president Roh tae-woo declared the renowned Eight Democratization Manifestoes, which was regarded as a symbol of South Korea's democratic transition from authoritarianism to democracy. In order to give a clear illustration of the democratic transitional process, this article selects a perspective on political structural analysis. Based on structures' different role in controlling national authority, political structures can be divided into authoritarian structures and restricted structures. The former contain president, troops and ruling party. The later contain congress, interest groups and social movements. It is believed that democratic transition is a result of interaction and conflict between the two different structures.The article is mainly comprised of four parts expect introduction. The first part mainly introduces theories and research methods of democratic transition. Presently, three theories and research methods are popular. They are comparative modernization theory and structural analysis method, citizen society theory and state-society relation analysis method, strategy selection theory and tactic international analysis method. When be used to examined democratic transition, all the theories and methods have their advantage and disadvantage. The second part researches the character of South Korean political structures before democratic transition. Authoritarianism went through three phases during the period from Park Chung-hee to Chun Doo-hwan. Authoritarian structures lie in dominant position compared to restricted structures in this stage. It should be pointed out the restricted structures began to effect the South Korean political development with their growth in strength. However, why authoritarian regime still existed in this period? The best explanation is the conflict between the two kinds of structures was limited. The third part analyzes the conflicts between authoritarian structures and restricted structures during democratic transition. For showing different structures' interaction process, the article selects three analysis perspectives. It focuses on the relations between state and citizen society, congress and government and central power and regional power. Authoritarian structures' dominant position disappeared gradually. However, it is not absolute. For example, although congress' power had been greatly strengthened in Roh tae-woo period, administrative power could still control the congress. That is because the ruling party took up absolute majority seats in congress. The fourth part mainly discusses political structures' limitation in South Korea after democratic transition. The article puts forward four main structural problems. For instance, troops still hold strong power; the level of party institutionalization was low; regional cleavage existed in political elections; Chaebols participated in South Korean politics. These problems still constrained political development. Therefore, there would be a long time to consolidate the democratic institution for South Korea.