정당연합과 지역주의

Abstract

The three-party-merger in 1990 and the cooperation of the ULD and the NDRP before the 15th presidential election were accomplished on the basis of regionalism, the most severe social cleavage in Korea. Although, in this process, the political elites formed electoral coalitions to win elections, acknowledging the legitimacy of existing democratic institutions and abiding by democratic rules of the game, it is much different from the “elite convergence” in the sense that they have strengthened the social cleavage, regionalism, for their own interests and did not try to reduce their partisanship. In the coalition process of the MDP and the KM21 before the 16th presidential election, however, the influence of regionalism as the supporting base for candidates has been decreased. If political elites are realigned according to their policy and ideological orientation in the near future, we can expect the “elite convergence” which leads to the consolidation of democracy.