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The National Assembly Futures Institute publishes reports that predict and analyze the changes in the future environment based on a comprehensive perspective, and derive mid- to long-term national development strategies in consideration of the preferences of the citizens
(21-10) A Study of National Governance for National Unity: The Politics of Coalition

Date : 2021-12-31 item : Research Report 20-10 P.I : Park Hyeon-seok

(21-10) A Study of National Governance for National Unity: The Politics of Coalition

This study aims to find an optimal alternative approach to political governance to promote national unity and to manage social conflict through the democratic process. We suggest that electoral laws be changed to increase the proportionality of representation and to reform political institutions to reduce the executive monopoly on political power. Our case study on political governance in the Northern European countries indicates that the coalition politics face gridlock due to the emergence of the right-wing populist parties as major political actors. However, the flexibility of coalition politics either tames the radical preferences of the populist parties or excludes the extremist parties from government coalitions. In contrast to the concerns about conflicts between presidentialism and multiparty coalition politics, the cross-national analysis in this report shows us that multi-party presidentialism has been surprisingly successful in terms of political performance through coalition politics. Our study also suggests that coalition politics has been useful in dealing with socio-economic crises in Korea. To reduce economic inequality and political polarization in order to promote national unity in Korea, it is important to build a political environment that can encourage coalition politics.