KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Abstract

A study on how to improve the operation of Gender-targeted Public Funding for Political Parties in South Korea

Eun Kyung Kim

Bok Tae Kim

Sunhaeng Lee

Jieun Lee

Hayeun Jeung

 

 

To expand women's political participation, a gender quota system in the Political Party Act and the Public Official Election Act has been introduced in South Korea, but women's political participation remains a major challenge. To face the challenge and to assist women politicians, South Korea amended the Political Funds Act which would lower the threshold for female politicians to enter politics and allow more women to participate in elections.

 

For female candidates participating in elections, a subsidy for women's nomination of candidates was newly established in the Political Fund Act (2002), and new funding for women's political development was established (2004) to encourage women's political activities.

 

This study examines how effectively these two provisions of the Political Fund Act are working in fostering female politicians. Through the research, it was confirmed that the contents of the two provisions stipulated in the Political Fund Act are ambiguous and do not meet the purpose of the legislation due to practical difficulties in operation.

 

Since the party has the right over the financial resources, the most important thing is the party's will to discover and nurture female politicians.

 

Although subsidies for female nominations are paid as election subsidies, they account for an insignificant portion of the total election campaign expenses. Women's political development expenses are 10% of the amount already paid as the party's current subsidy. Given these circumstances, it is difficult for these funds to be fully effective without the determination and will of the political parties.

 

In this study, we propose a policy improvement plan to realize the improvement and operation of the system at present, about 20 years since the system was implemented.

 

It is a plan to expand the subsidy for women's nomination, which was applied only to members of Congress and Local Council, to candidates for heads of local governments, or to consider the subsidy per elected in every election in addition to the subsidy for women's nomination of candidates. In the case of women's political development expenses, considering the scale of the expenses, we propose a plan to allocate dedicated personnel and a plan to disclose the accounting report of all government subsidies paid to political parties.

 

Research areas: Women's Representation

Keywords: women’s political development, Political Fund Act, Political Party, Gender-targeted Public Funding, gender politics