This graph shows the changes in the seat distribution of liberal parties (DPK and affiliated parties), conservative parties (PPP and affiliated parties), and progressive parties (Labor Party, Social Party, and nationalist left) in the 17 National Assembly elections held in the Republic of Korea since 1963.

The seat information from the relevant Wikipedia article was categorized by political faction and recalculated. Independent candidates were also categorized by political faction to the extent possible.

The current conservative political faction can be traced back to the Democratic Republican Party (Park Chung-hee) in 1961, while the liberal political faction can be traced back to the Democratic Party (Shin Ik-hee) in 1955. The progressive lineage can be traced back to the Progressive Party (Cho Bong-am) in 1956.

However, ideological distinctions were quite vague until the 1950s and 1960s. After that, ideological differentiation gradually took place, and the current structure was established in the 21st century.

Posted by minaminonoeru

6 comments

  1. Additional note: The side that won the election (with a majority) is indicated in bold. So far, liberal parties have won a majority five times.(Including the 1960 election, which is not included in the graph)

    The small yellow sections (progressive parties) in 1981 and 1985 represent seats intentionally allocated by the military dictatorship. At the time, the military dictatorship wanted to demonstrate to the international community that progressive parties existed in South Korea and attempted to send representatives to the Socialist International. It is said that this provided some assistance to countries like France (where Mitterrand was elected president).

  2. I do find it interesting that the chart adopts the “blue, red” US dynamic of liberal and conservative. It wasn’t even a thing until the early 2000s.

  5. What does conservative and liberal mean in SK context? It’s already quite different between EU and US, so I can imagine that extrapolating these concepts to a very different culture must be complicated? Is it meant economically or socially?

  6. The liberals of Korea are the conservatives in America.

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