We have discussed the turbulence of democratic transition in South Korea. Now, to what extent there has been progress, okay? 1987, we had a democratic transition. In 1988 we had the beginning of the Sixth Republic, the truly democratic republic. Okay, now, it has been more than almost 30 years, right, and what we have achieved in South Korea? Then as we discussed before, what matters is the degree of democratic consolidation. Let us look at the representative consolidation. I would say that we have still immature consolidation of democratic system. And most important reason is what we have a extremely weak party system. There is a saying, that in Korea we have political parties but we do not have political party members. Political party members are mostly mobilized by the members in National Assembly from his or her own district. Therefore, we do not have a like American or European type of party system. Therefore, the political parties have been rather weak in aggregating public interest, and articulating those interests in National Assembly, and turning into the law and policy. And also, we still have a very fragmented and immobile legislative branch. Some people say now, in South Korea, we used to argue that Korean political system is imperial presidency system. But now, some people argue that the now legislative branch overruled executive branch, okay? Yes, I will say that the legislative branch has become very, very powerful. But it's still fragmented, immobile, and divisive. In the sense that there is a long way to go to representative consolidation, and also civil society's extremely polarized. Those are the kinds of, in the current status of representative consolidation in South Korea. Then how about institutional consolidation? Since 1987, we adopt a new Constitution. The Constitution is a real democratic constitution. But still we're suffering from imperial presidency and its negative effects. And there's some deformity in constitutional design. For example, presidential term is what seven year, five year, one-term president. And we have National Assembly election, which is a four-year cycle. Then we have a five-year presidential election cycle, four-year National Assembly electoral cycle. The mismatch between the two system has created enormous operational problems, okay? And also, it has created some kind of democratic deformity in South Korea too. And also, now the debate is a debate on the electoral system. Small district system in which winner take all, but the middle or large district system, then there's a ruling and opposition party members can be simultaneously elected in the system, okay? Therefore, some scholars argue that the middle electoral district system is more democratic than small electoral district system. It is ongoing system, therefore, again, will have so-called imperial presidency and deformity in constitutional design, and debate on electoral system, really exemplify that the institutional consolidation in South Korea hasn't been truly accomplished. Then how about structural consolidation? Korean society still polarized between conservative power and liberal/progressive power, okay? There's extreme form of political polarization, okay, and in terms of the ideology, in terms of value orientation. There's no middle ground, okay? Now that has become one of the big issues in South Korea, okay? And also they're having some sort of limits to consolidation of democratic forces. But again, Korea, we have something called the forces who are supporting old industrialization and forces who are really supporting the democratization of 1980s. These forces are really confronting each other in Korean political landscape. On the other hand, the so-called the younger generation, has become politically apathy, okay. And in the sense there is structural derailment of Korean politics. That is another very important task to be resolved. And finally, behavioral consolidation. I would say Korea is still going through the age of a political culture of Confucianism. Regionalism, factionalism still predominant in Korean politics. Conformity to authority is still pervasive. If I were to say that Confucian political values are still well and alive. And also, if you look at electoral outcomes, okay, for example, in Honam district, southwestern regions, the Honam regions support almost 90% opposition party. Yeongnam Province, okay, almost more than 80%, they vote in the ruling party. Therefore, regional foundation of electoral politics has not been remedied. Recently changes, opposition party member got elected in area which is a really [INAUDIBLE] urban ruling party. And also member of ruling party got elected in Honam Province, okay. And that is a good sign, but still, long way to go to overcome regionalism in electoral politics. But there is a one positive signal. It is what I call the hidden power of a silent majority. If you look at the electoral outcome April 13, 2016, this year, you could clearly see silent majority can really affect the electoral outcome in a very positive direction. In the sense behavioral consolidation is rather mixed. I will say it is improving. But it is still short of ideal state of, it hasn't reached the ideal state of behavioral consolidation.
