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The prosecution and the Blue House are enjoying more power and influence than last year but the Grand National Party and the Democratic Party, the two pillars of Korea’s contemporary political scene, now have the lowest credibility rating among 25 corporate, political and government organizations surveyed recently by the JoongAng Ilbo and East Asia Institute, a local think tank.

 

Samsung, Hyundai Motor and SK took the top three spots in terms of influence and credibility, the two categories the survey focused on, the results showed.

 

The phone survey was conducted on 1,845 people from June 22 to 24.

 

Samsung came out on top with seven points out of 10, while Hyundai Motor took the No. 1 spot in credibility with 6.58 points out of 10. However, LG, which ranked fourth in influence and third in credibility last year, fell to the seventh and fourth spots, respectively, this year.

 

In terms of influence, LG has weakened while the state prosecution, the Blue House and the Constitutional Court of Korea have shown significant gains.

 

However, it’s a different story when it comes to credibility. In this category, the state prosecution remained in 12th place, the same as last year. The legal institution has lately been battered for disclosing the personal e-mails of people under investigation and for what some believe was an overly aggressive probe into the late President Roh Moo-hyun and his family over a bribery scandal. Roh took his own life in May before the case was resolved.

 

Staying with credibility, the Blue House took the 17th spot and the ruling Grand National Party was at the bottom of the 25 organizations. In fact, four major political parties came in the bottom six places. The GNP stood at 13th in terms of influence, showing a significant gap between how people regard the party’s power and its actual credibility.

 

According to two academics who analyzed the survey results - Kang Won-taek, professor of political science at Soongsil University, and Lee Hyun-woo, professor of political science at Sogang University - the gap between the influence and credibility of the 25 leading organizations in Korea has widened in recent years.

 

They said the average scores for credibility were lower than those for influence by 0.55 points in 2005, but the average for influence has been rising since 2007 and credibility has been heading in the opposite direction. This year, the gap has advanced to 0.8 points. The professors say this shows that organizations are gaining in power but losing the public’s confidence.