Continuities in the Party System of the Republic of Korea from the Authoritarian to the Democratic Era: The Conservative Party(ies) in the National Assembly between 1972 and 1997

Abstract

In scholarship about the South Korean party system, the two main political parties are seen as organizations with a certain degree of continuity despite constant party name changes, mergers and splits, but, at the same time, as lacking institutionalization because of those constant changes. This article argues that, after the democratic transition, an important part of the authoritarian institutional setting and of the political elites of the previous period had a continuation in the new system. To prove this argument this article looks at the so-called conservative party(ies) between 1972 and 1997 and traces its continuity in the National Assembly.