• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.5-40
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• 2021

In the 4.7 by-election in 2021, the ruling Democratic Party suffered a record devastating defeat, breaking the trend of a post-intermediate evaluation confirmed in the recent election. Why did the Democratic Party lose by a large margin unlike the recent election trend? In order to find answers to these questions, this study analyzes the voting behavior of individual voters based on the voter consciousness survey data conducted after the 4.7 by-election, while examining the background and causes of such voter choices. As a result of the study, in the 4.7 by-election, as confirmed in previous studies, public opinion against the ruling government was strong, and negative elections were held. However, if we look at the process and results of this by-election in more detail, we can see that it is different from the general by-election. In the past by-elections, the government judgement was due to the passive participation of the ruling party-oriented voters in elections with low political weight, or the active judgement psychology that was maximized in situations where the political burden was less. However, in this by-election, on the contrary, in an election with a high political weight, the active judgement psychology of the Democratic Party and non-partisan voters had an effect on strengthening the midterm evaluation character of the election. In addition, it can be seen that the gathering of conservative voters who support the opposition also had a strong influence on the reinforcement of the midterm evaluation character of the election.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.39-66
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• 2018

This paper analyzes the structures and issues of 2018 Korean local elections based on the author's observations on the electoral processes. Even if this paper does not follow a traditional statistical method, it provides the interpretative meanings of 2018 local elections by utilizing an expert's observations of campaign processes. This result of 2018 election can be summarized into two analytical frames. In terms of electoral competition structure, three key factors, such as presidential approval rating, party competition structure, ideological spectrum, tend to affect the winning of governing party. In the light of election issue, the inter-Korean summit, the Washington-Pyeongyang summit, Incheon deprecating remark were positive to the vote gains of governing party, but the negative campaign, the drucking scandal and the swing voters were found not to be significant. The local election in Korea tends to show dual meanings, a proxy war of national-level politics and a composition process of local government. This paper found that the 2018 election has dual meanings at the same time, in a sense that it is the punishment of the ex-governing party's wrongdoing and the power change of local government.