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Electoral Systems : The Miracle On The Han River Essay

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Electoral Systems: The Miracle on the Han River

Elections form essential determinants of the democratic levels in any states. Experience has increasingly suggested that the developments of electoral systems that conduct election activities in isolation from the broader political contests are contributing factors to any prevailing political problem that requires democratic solutions. The phrase “miracle on the Han River” describes the rapid economic development of South Korea from the 1960s onwards. In a very short time, the Republic of Korea has achieved a political transformation that occurred in the past quarter-century and has graduated from military dictatorship to the twentieth most democratic country in the world, and the most democratic in Asia, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. East Asia today is a mixture of liberalism, oligarchy, capitalism, and corruption. (O’Neil 201) and given the general lack of democracy in Asia, it is necessary know how South Korea has embraced democracy so strongly. This paper engages in comparative analysis of electoral systems in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and North Korea in relation to the impact of these systems on democracy.

South Korea operates on a plurality electoral system, which has been helping the country in determining the formation of the party system in 2007 presidential elections (Bailey 33). This electoral system discouraged the formation of large, various parties and this encouraged the grumpy, and

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