South Korea and Duverger’s Law

                In 1951 a French political scientist named Maurice Duverger attempted to explain how electoral results and party systems were linked to the electoral rules of a given country.  The Encyclopedia Britannica stated; “Duverger argued that single-member-district electoral systems that require only a plurality to win election tend to produce two-party systems, whereas proportional-representation systems tend to produce multiparty systems; this generalization was later called “Duverger’s law” “ (Political Science : Post-World War II Trends and Debates). This law promotes the idea that single-member district constituencies tend to produce strong two party systems while proportional representation electoral rules tend to lead to multi-party systems.   In South Korea’s electoral system we find that there is a lot of evidence supporting Duverger’s law.  This is further strengthened by the hybrid style electoral system the country has adopted.  According to the data put forth from the South Korean electoral system, Duverger was right in his assumption that “the effective number of parties in any electoral district is a function of the electoral rules.” (K. Hawkins, Electoral Rules, October 31, 2012)

                South Korea’s parliament is unicameral and has elections every five years.  Each legislative election there is a total of 300 seats up for office and seats are filled using a hybrid voting system.  246 of those seats are filled through single-member district constituencies.  In this voting scheme the public officials are voted in as individuals identifying themselves with a political party or as individuals.  The remaining 54 seats “are divided proportionately among the political parties based upon their votes obtained in the districts, on condition that they have obtained at least 3% of the total valid votes cast or secured five district constituency seats or more”  (IPU PARLINE Database: REPUBLIC OF KOREA, Kuk Hoe).  The principle set forth that a party has to receive at least 3% of the total valid votes is what is known as a threshold.  This is the minimum amount of votes a party can receive to still be considered for party registration and to have votes “truly count”. 

When voting proportionately for the last 54 seats in the legislature voters will use what is known as a list; South Korea uses an open list.  In this case they vote for a specific party and the party selects representatives to place in office.  This is different than how officials are elected in a single-member district constituency where the elected officials are voted directly.  The district magnitude is a representation of “how many seats are allotted to each district” (K. Hawkins, Electoral Rules, October 31, 2012).  South Korea’s district magnitude is represented by the 300 seats available to the different districts. 

                In the most recent election 1,090 candidates from twenty different political parties contested for seats in the legislature.  Of the twenty parties competing for seats only four of those parties s won seats.  Using the equation given by political scientists (1/∑(p^2) we find that the effective number of parties is 2.94.  Effectively this shows us that three political parties carry a significant amount of weight in the South Korean legislature and electoral system (IPU PARLINE Database: REPUBLIC OF KOREA, Kuk Hoe).  Taking into account Duverger’s law, we can assume that his postulates were correct in that the strong presence of a single-member district plurality we can find two strong parties dominating the political scene.  We can also see the effects of a small number of seats allocated based upon a proportional representation.  Although it is a small effect we observe that when seats are allocated this way there is a general greater representation of a third and fourth party. 

                In conclusion, Duverger’s law was proven to be a sufficient explanation for the electoral rules of a country and how they correlate with the effective number of parties that contest in society.  South Korea is a good example of what he taught, namely that the electoral rules contribute strongly to the electoral make-up of the country.   

Works Cited

"IPU PARLINE Database: REPUBLIC OF KOREA (Kuk Hoe), Electoral System." IPU PARLINE Database: REPUBLIC OF KOREA (Kuk Hoe), Electoral System. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. <http://ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2259_B.htm>.

"Political Science : Post-World War II Trends and Debates." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 02 Nov. 2012. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/467721/political-science/247909/Post-World-War-II-trends-and-debates>.