The Vortex: Presidential Power in Korean Politics

The president’s centrality in Korean politics is often compared to a vortex. (Image from Wikimedia Commons.)

Korean politics has often been described as a “vortex.” It’s a word that’s come up often in my interviews with Korean politicians, and there’s even a book titled Korea: The Politics of the Vortex. But what is this vortex? How can a political system be a “vortex?” The answer lies in a study of the distribution of power in Korean politics, and the quick discovery that the president stands at the center of Korean political activity.

An Introduction to Korean Electoral Politics for the Casual Observer

By Chelsea Carlson

South Korea’s National Assembly building in Seoul.       (Image from Wikimedia Commons.)

This post is intended to be a brief introduction to Korean politics for our readers. While I wanted to jump into more argument-based content from the very beginning, I thought you might appreciate a concise tour through the modern Korean electoral system. I will cover the election process in Korea, the structure of the National Assembly, and gender quotas in the National Assembly. A working knowledge of this material will be helpful when reading my future posts, so I hope that I’ve made this relatively easy to read and understand. For brevity’s sake, I’ll focus on the national level of politics in this post and elaborate on local politics in future discussions.