The Evaluation of Representation of Parliamentary Democracy in South Korea : Representational Roles of Korean Political Parties

Abstract

This article focuses on representation of political parties as representational agents of parliamentary democracy and explores representational roles and problems of Korean political parties. Political linkage between citizens and parties as their representatives in a developmental process of parliamentary democracy has played a pivotal role in change and reinforcement of representation in a modern parliamentary. Factors of intensifying political linkage between citizens and parties include as follows: party’s responsiveness, party’s stability, interaction between party and voter, party recruitment, party’s accountability, and party’ minority representation. The results indicate that low levels of political representation of Korean political parties contribute to weakening representational functions of Korean parliamentary democracy.