A Comparative Analysis Of The Electoral System Reform In East Asia

This paper aims at analyzing the electoral system reforms in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan which started from 1980 and have been very successful under the influence of "third wave" . Why such reforms were conducted in the East Asian region and what forces led to such reforms—these two questions are the focal points of the present paper.Due to historical reasons, there are both differences and similarities in the routes and ways of the electoral reforms in the two countries and one region. This paper attempts to study the significance that the reforms had on the political development through an investigation of the process, reasons and driving forces of the electoral reforms in East Asia. By combining political transition theory with election theory, the present paper further analyzes the political development in East Asia. It can be concluded that political and social development promotes changes in the electoral system, which, as a tool for the expression of public opinions, consolidates the fruits of political development.Through analysis, this paper will divide the ways of the electoral system reform in East Asia into two main models: the reform model of South Korea and Taiwan region is called creation model, the Japan-based reform model is called improvement model. On the one hand, this paper will sum up the characteristics of each model, and on the other hand, will identify the commonality and individuality of two models by comparative analysis. By comparison, we can find that two models of the electoral system reform are not completely antagonistic, but interactive.According to the characteristics of the research subject, the thesis mainly adopts document analysis and comparative analysis approach. Based on the document analysis approach ,we will analyze the context of the reform , the reasons, the history and such factors. This paper is structured around the reform of the electoral system as a main line of logic, and compares the course of change and what motivated that change in East Asia.