Summary: Conditions for a Successful National Assembly

Autonomy, Policy Capacity, and Leadership in Integration

The success of the National Assembly, as the representative body of the people, is directly linked to the achievement and prosperity of representative democracy in Korea. A successful National Assembly is one that fulfills the duties endowed by the Constitution. Under what conditions can the National Assembly succeed? This paper seeks to explore the answer to this question.

Amidst public calls for reform in our politics and the National Assembly, voices of self-reflection are also rising among politicians themselves. In Korean politics, power struggles among ambitious individuals have often been more prominent than competition over policy visions and alternatives to effectively address the nation's pressing challenges. Consequently, ordinary citizens have sometimes viewed politics as 'a feast for them alone.' The deliberation of state affairs in the National Assembly has also been sidelined by fierce battles between political factions. The Assembly has failed to demonstrate sincere efforts to realize national welfare and benefit. Furthermore, widespread corruption among politicians has led to a situation where the very basis for the National Assembly's existence as a representative body of the people has been shaken.

While the strong criticism directed at the National Assembly has its reasons, extreme arguments suggesting its uselessness are not conducive to the development of democracy. The democratic ideal is the direct governance of state affairs by ordinary citizens. However, no modern state possesses the physical conditions for all citizens to gather and deliberate on state affairs in person. Even if advanced communication technology were to create a cyber forum where all citizens could simultaneously communicate and debate, crucial state affairs could not be adequately resolved through such means. The pressing challenges of modern states with diversified social foundations are highly complex and difficult to resolve without sustained, focused effort and the application of specialized knowledge. Therefore, ordinary citizens elect representatives with virtue and capability to deliberate on state affairs in the legislative chambers.

Of course, representative democracy reveals its limitations when representatives fail to adequately respond to the public will and ordinary citizens cannot effectively control these representatives. Such problematic situations lead to a decline in trust in representative institutions like the National Assembly, while simultaneously strengthening the justification for direct participation by sovereign citizens. This creates an impetus for the spread of post-parliamentary movements and arguments such as participatory democracy, direct democracy, associational democracy, and deliberative democracy. However, in modern states, none of these can entirely replace the ideal and practice of representative democracy. Today, even at the most narrow local level, no political community operates solely on direct and participatory democracy. Direct democratic ideals and institutions are more significant in spurring the reform of existing representative democracy, complementing it, and qualitatively deepening it.

• For the National Assembly to succeed, it must possess high levels of autonomy, policy capacity, and leadership in integration. First, only an autonomous National Assembly can succeed. An institution lacking autonomy struggles to secure stability and effectively perform its unique functions, thus finding it difficult to justify its existence. In the current presidential system, the autonomy of the National Assembly refers to its ability to appropriately achieve checks and cooperation in its relationship with the President and the executive branch. Second, a National Assembly that effectively exercises policy capacity succeeds. It must faithfully deliberate on fundamental national policies, including legislation, and rigorously supervise their implementation. Third, a National Assembly that demonstrates the capacity to integrate the public and maintain the democratic system succeeds. The National Assembly must embrace the interests and opinions of diverse strata and groups, and be able to reach decisions by coordinating differing viewpoints amidst mutual respect between the majority and minority factions.
• The essence of National Assembly reform lies in faithfully establishing the conditions for its success. National Assembly reform necessitates the reform of the institutions that organize and operate the Assembly. However, prior to appropriate institutional reform, the self-reform of the National Assembly members, the key actors in legislative activities, is a prerequisite. They must establish their goals, virtues, and capabilities for a successful National Assembly with a renewed resolve. We propose the following 11 points as directions for the self-reform of National Assembly members and measures for institutional reform of the National Assembly.

- The full text is in the attached file.