Organized by the Research Network on Gender and Diversity in Political Representation (GDRep)

DATE: June 13, 2018 6:30pm-8:00pm

VENUE: 1F meeting room, ISS, UTokyo (Hongo Campus)

LANGUAGE: English

TITLE: "Candidate selection reform and its impact on women's representation in South Korea"



ABSTRACT:
As in most parts of the world, women in South Korea are significantly underrepresented in the National Assembly. To become assembly members, the aspirants have to first survive candidate selection (CS) and then the general election. During this first procedure, political parties limit the alternatives for the electorate by internally filtering out the most of the would-be candidates. Drawing on cases from Korean politics, this presentation aims to explain how the CS method affects women`s representation. In the early 2000s, the written rules of CS were revised in several ways. For the proportional representatives, a gender quota was introduced and parties started to fill their lists with almost equal numbers of men and women. As a result, after the 17th general election of 2004, the number of female assembly members doubled from the previous election. For the single member districts (SMDs), in which candidates were previously nominated by dominant party leaders, a two-stage CS mechanism was formally institutionalized. According to the recent party statutes, the screening committee in the central party office preliminarily evaluates the qualifications of all aspirants, and among the ones who pass the first stage, the final candidates are determined by primaries in individual constituencies. In most cases, not only party members, but also nonpartisan electorates can participate in the primary. This new CS method has not dramatically increased the number of female candidates. Whereas minor, progressive parties made efforts to nominate more female candidates, the major parties that traditionally dominate the National Assembly have consistently nominated very few female candidates in the SMDs. That said, it is difficult to conclude that the problem of low female representation lies with the primary system given that primaries are often not even held in practice. In fact, most candidates are directly appointed by the screening committee, making the number of female candidates largely determined at the evaluation stage. My provisional view of these results is that both demand for and supply of female candidates are very low in Korean politics.



SPEAKER:
Dr. Eun Hee Woo completed her B.A. with a double major in German language/literature and political science at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul. After witnessing the political, economic, and social centralisation in Korea, and spending a year as an exchange student in Cologne, Germany, she developed an interest in the history of European party politics, in comparison with Northeast Asia. This led to her MA dissertation on the process of party formation out of social movement activism. To broaden her academic perspective and networks, she moved to the Free University Berlin in Germany. In May 2017, she obtained her PhD with a thesis entitled, "Formal Institutional Change and the Continuity of Informal Practices: Candidate Selection Procedures in South Korea, 2000-2012". Currently, as a postdoctoral fellow at ISS, supported by the Japan Foundation, she is turning her focus to Japanese party politics, and notably the informal and gendered dynamics of elite recruitment.




Advanced registration welcome, but not necessary. As per usual, we will go out for dinner after the lecture. Please let me know if you will join the dinner.


Contact: Jackie F. Steele, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo, steele@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp <mailto:steele@iss.u-tokyo.ac.jp>


科学研究費補助金（基盤研究（B）女性の政治参画の障壁：国会議員・県連への郵送・ヒアリング調査、課題番号：18H00817、代表：三浦まり）