[Asia Democracy Issue Briefing] Party Polarization without Party Sorting in South Korea
2020-09-14
Knowledge-Net for a Better World
September 2020
Party Polarization without Party Sorting in South Korea:
Centrist Voters in Drift
Jung Kim
Assistant Professor, University of North Korean Studies
"South Korean Party Politics -
Polarizing Space with Little Space for Centrists"
Since democratization, South Korean party politics has been featured by increasing party polarization and incomplete party sorting. In this issue briefing, Prof. Jung Kim examines several factors that have led to party polarization and incomplete party sorting in the country’s politics. Prof. Kim argues that under the two-and-a-half party system, political representation has been unequal, as it over-represents progressive and conservative voters while under-representing centrists, thereby increasing polarization between progressive and conservative parties. At the same time, Prof. Kim argues that the number of centrist voters who do not fall under the ideological distributions of the major parties remains significant, which indicates that party polarization has not been corresponding with party sorting, leaving centrist voters in drift.
