The Korean Recall System

Abstract

Despite its constitutional mandate, local autonomy in South Korea was initially launched in 1991, when the Korean People chose their local representatives by popular vote for the first time. And, the heads of municipalities were generally elected in 1995, marking a new era for Korean grass-roots democracy whose realization was several decades overdue. Generally speaking, the implementation of local autonomy in South Korea has shown mixed results thus far. On the one hand, it has contributed partially to enhancing the welfare of local residents by inducing officials of local governments to listen to the needs of local communities. On the other hand, however, it has a long way to go to accomplish the ideals of self-government in many aspects. Many people tend to beindifferent to local affairs, leading to significantly low turnouts in local elections. Local governments still depend upon the central government financially to a considerable degree. More importantly, high-ranking officials and representatives of local governments were often criticized for undue influence from local business interests and reckless budgetary management. After a decade of experience with local autonomy, the civic movement led by local NGOs has begun to form a political alliance for the introduction of meaningful checks on power abuses and financial irregularities, which include local residents’ right to request a financial audit, the initiative, the referendum, residents’ suits, and, finally, recall. Such strenuous efforts on the national level successfully bore fruits. The National Assembly in South Korea has recently legislated such measures in an incremental manner. Among others, the Law on Recall was made in 2006 and entered into force beginning from July 2007, making the recall system a reality. It was not easy to introduce the recall system due to strong resistance from local governments, which would be subject to its potentially powerful impact on local politics. Recall is basically designed to make local officials and representatives politically accountable, because residential power to recall could function as the most powerful means of political control on power abuses by mobilizing people to act against improper policy choices and corruption. Once it was introduced, it is time to consider how effectively to implement the recall system as designed. Also, there is a need to address the problems with the recall system in its current form. This paper below examines the Law on Recall, analyzes its deficiencies, and suggests how to solve them.