’Imperial Presidency’:Study Of South Korea’s President Of Power

Schlesinger put forward the concept of "imperial presidency". This concept is used to describe the President who has the power beyond the vocabulary of the constitution. In South Korea, it is often used to describe the President’s enormous powers. Now the concept of "imperial presidency" is frequently used in academia, politics and media. Imperial presidency has become a stumbling block of South Korea’s political development. And this has been the consensus of the social from all walks of life. So, what the President’s powers are, why he/she has such big powers, what impacts and consequences are, and now what measures should be taken to change this situation, these are the goals of this article.Imperial presidency is defined as "The President exercises his political rights like a king and no laws and institutions can limit him." The imperial presidency is characterized by the president monopolized the process of policy decision-making and the political power is abused.Why the President of South Korea was called the Imperial presidency? The reasons can be divided into internal causes and external causes generally. Internal reasons are the President’s personal factors. There are President’s growing-up experience, personality, world view, values, behavior and authority tendency. Particularly, the president’s authority tendency is a key factor. External factors, the power which the constitution gives to the President; the power which the President acquired indirectly. In addition, there are many unwritten rules in the political process etc.The President having too many powers also has two aspects of effect. In this case, the state power is centralized highly, the economy is developed quickly and people’s living standard is improved quickly. But on the whole, negative influence is the mainstream. Regionalism, sharp conflict among political parties, the President himself, families, relatives and trusted follower’s corruption problems are all the result of the power highly centralized. In addition, the excessive concentration of power, especially the economic development model which leading by government seriously hindered the development of market economy.In view of this, the social from all walks of life put forward a variety of solutions. Such as implement the responsibility system of the prime minister. According to the provisions of the constitution to ensure the prime minister to implement power and decentralized powers of the President; Change the President five years tenure for four years tenure and can be re-elected. Under the five-year tenure, Presidents are so cautious that did not dare to operate or are so indiscriminate that can be irresponsible. Using four years to instead of five years can not only ensure the continuity of the national development planning, but policy makers and practitioners also can strengthen the political responsibility; to encourage citizens to participate in political activities actively. The civic groups are active increasingly and the supervision of public opinion is enhancing. National positive political participation will play a bigger role. Party separation; Separate right of the party from the regime, preventing the President from controlling of congress. Realize the separation of powers, checks and balance of power.