South Korea Vs West Germany

Lessons from German unification for the two Koreas: the comparison between West Germany and South Korea

I. Domestic Politics

Germany has a long history of federalism except the period of Nazi’s totalitarianism (1933-1945). German Basic Law, which was approved in 1949, indicates that all state authority is derived from the people, and it shall be exercised by the people through elections. Namely, it is an indirect democracy. In addition, West Germany regulated some characteristic political rules for parliamentary government system, because of the two extreme experiences of the Weimar Republic and Hitler’s Nazi regime (MOFA of ROK, 2014). First, the 5% restrictive clause (Sperrklausel) is made to protect the presence of many small parties

Traditionally, Korea was a centralized country based on strong Confucian values. Due to late accepting the Western culture, Korea had difficulty protecting invasion of imperial countries. As a result, Korea was colonized by Japan from 1910 to 1945 and gained independence after the Second World War. However, this small country was divided soon as South and North by their ideology, and experienced the Korean War (1950-1953), while reorganizing a nation. The first President Syngman Rhee maintained his position from 1948, but he stepped down in 1960 due to the large amount of public protest against his manipulated election. In May 1961, General Chunghee Park led a military coup and became the 5th President from 1963, but he was assassinated by his intelligence chief in 1979. Until finishing one more military government by President Doowhan Chun, South Korean political system was an almost dictatorship. This was because Korea was a divided country and experienced rapid industrialization (Kim, 2006). The continuing armed confrontation justified leader’s strong control of nation, and made military authorities strengthen. President Rhee prioritized the relationship with the U.S. to protect South Korea by the nuclear umbrella. President Park also emphasized insecure situation of South Korea and stressed a necessity of strong military government. Moreover, he contributed the economic growth by his five

In this process, unlike West Germany, a party platform was not so related to the choice of the people. Rather, a reputation of individual candidates was more important factor. Accordingly, the political parties were repeatedly reorganizing themselves, and they emphasized a regionalism to obtain votes. Also, it was hard to find long-term policy consistency beyond each President. To find a solution, there was a voice of amendment to the Constitution for changing a political structure, such as four-year two times of Presidential term, the parliamentary government, and so on. Even though the change will not happen officially in a short time, it will be discussed someday in the future. Lastly, Security problem was always a sensitive topic to the President, because South and North Korea have been in a state of armistice since 1953. All of the Presidents basically opposed the North Korea’s nuclear program; however, their strategy priority was fluctuated between resolution in relationship and renouncing nuclear development (Chun, 2015). In sum, the political system and tradition of West Germany and South Korea is considerably different except