The Choice of Electoral Systems in New Democracies: A Case Study of Korea in 1988.

This paper explains the choice of the Korean legislative electoral institution in 1988 as an example of the electoral system choice in new democracies. Through analyzing multiple steps leading to the choice, the paper shows that unforeseen political situations as well as unusual institutional setting play a large role in choosing an electoral system in the developing world. More specifically, this case study suggests three potentially generalizable findings. First, when parties choose a legislative electoral institution in a presidential system, it is highly likely that parties will prefer an institution that helps them in the subsequent presidential election even though the institution might harm them in the upcoming legislative election. Second, parties in the developing world at times face unusual systems that are neither majoritarian nor fully PR. Under such unusual systems, party size would not be a reliable predictor for the party's preference over electoral institutions. Finally, in new democracies, labor parties can only induce old parties to shift to PR if they have mobilized the working class prior to democratization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]