Monopolizing Authority: The Construction of Presidential Power in South Korea

Abstract

The power of the president is a concept which is largely cultural and historically constructed. Although the prominent scholar Richard Neustadt claims that “presidential power is no more than the power to persuade,” in South Korea, it has become far greater through the country’s peculiar blend of history and culture. The Korean War and the influence of the Cold War, the prevalent authoritarianism, security threats from North Korea and the Confucian tradition, have all contributed strongly to the emergence of a strong presidency. From its first days in 1948 and the successive authoritarian regimes to the democratic days of 1987, South Korea’s political system has fostered the power of its president. But if power relies on each president’s individual will and capacity, their personal ability is still firmly embedded in the state’s historical and cultural context. Thus, every president since 1948 has exercized substantial power in most state affairs, much greater than Neustadt would concede. In the past, the South Koreans’ long-term experience of authoritarianism persuaded them to leave their destiny in the president’s controlling hands. Hence, even though the country modelled its presidential system on that of the United States, the actual power of its president is much greater than that of the American president and from the outset South Korea developed a presidential system all of its own.