Elections

In December, Koreans chose the new president. On April 9, they elected the National Assembly (국회의사당, 國會義社堂) representatives.

In Korea, the range of acceptable election practices has gotten tighter over the past two decades since the transition to a civilian government. Candidates are no longer getting away with things like buying meals or giving money for votes. Taking a picture of your ballot with a cell phone is also illegal, since it implies that you intend to show it to someone and get compensated.

In fact, the small town of Cheongdo (청도) in the southeastern province of Gyeongsangdo, has recently become a byword for a corruption because of a vote-buying in the December election. Nearly 6,000 people were involved, accounting for over 12 percent of the entire town's population. [Source] The media jumped all over the news, giving the town a lot of unwelcome publicity - a sign that such monkey business is no longer being tolerated.

Still, candidates can legally do some interesting things by U.S. standards. For example, it’s OK to drive through town in the back of a truck and broadcast messages on loudspeakers. A couple of times, I’ve had had my class disrupted by this, but wasn’t able to get a picture in time. Then, finally, I had seen one candidate near my in-law’s place.

However, despite the “structural” improvements to the electoral process, opinion writers complained that The Korean election was characterized by an almost complete lack of discussion about policy. Rather, candidates relied on personalism and party – who the candidates were and why they were the best qualified. As a result, it was all about what was on their resume rather than what they offered the Korean voter.

If that sounds familiar, I guess that it’s because it’s pretty similar to the U.S. Democratic primary. Clinton garners the strongest support from women and those over 60 – it’s not a big coincidence that she’s a woman and in that same age group is not much of a surprise. Nor is it big news that a key constituency for Obama is the African-American population. They’re both winning key demographics because of who they are, rather than what they offer.

So I guess if Korea’s elections – flawed as they are – are about on par with American standards, they must be doing OK. It's just too bad we can't represent a higher bar.