The Politics of Regulating Elections in South Korea: The Persistence of Restrictive Campaign Laws

Establishing an effective legal framework for regulating elections is widely considered a priority for new democracies. Electoral regulation, though, can be profoundly political. I examine the politics of electoral regulation in South Korea. The country’s restrictive campaign laws stand in sharp contrast to the liberal values that many espouse. Given the vibrancy of South Korea’s civil society and the entrance of many former activists into party politics, it is surprising that laws continue to limit political discussion and participation during election campaigns. I shed light on this puzzle by examining the ways an established party elite appropriated predemocratic institutions of electoral governance. Restrictive election regulations have their origins decades before South Korea’s democratic transition began in 1987. I offer evidence from the evolution of campaign laws in order to demonstrate continuity in important portions of the restrictions and to suggest reasons why a group of influential actors have converged around the perpetuation of these restrictions. This study has implications for the subject of electoral engineering and for thinking about South Korea’s democratization.

韩国选举规管的政治：限制性竞选法的长期存在

关键词：民主化；韩国；选举；竞选法

一般认为，新近民主化的国家应该优先建立有效规管选举的法律框架。然而，选举的规管可能会具有深刻的政治色彩。我在本文中考察了韩国的选举政治。该国限制性的竞选法与很多人秉持的自由主义价值行成了鲜明的对比。鉴于韩国民间社会高度活跃，而且很多以前的政治活动家现在已经进入政党政治活动，韩国法律仍然继续限制竞选期间的政治讨论和政治参与这一现象就令人非常惊异了。本文通过考察一位体制内政党精英采用何种方式盗用民主化之前的选举治理体制来试图解释这个谜团。限制性选举规定的源头可以追溯到1987年起开始的韩国民主化转型的数十年以前。我从竞选法的演化过程中提出证据，表明限制性规定的重要部分具有连续性，提出了一群有影响力的行动者为什么会最终合力将这些限制性规定永久化。本研究对于选举工程学的课题具有一定的意义，也有助于思考韩国民主化的问题。

Translated from English by Li Guo