Deep interest in learning from Korea's experience in establishing a parliamentary representation system ... but not eager to put it to use

Youn Jung-suk, president of the Korean Legislative Studies Institute, speaks in an interview with The Korea Times at his office in Seoul, last Tuesday. He said that now is the time for the National Assembly to find its role in helping what he called the emerging democracies. (Korea Times Photo/Shim Hyun-chul)

Scholar Touts 'Made-in-Korea' Democracy for Emerging Nations

01-18-2010
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The Korea Times (South Korea)

Youn pointed out that strengthening parliaments to make them work better was one of the sustainable ways to help people live in better conditions.

Officials in some developing Asian countries, including Vietnam and Mongolia, have begun taking a closer look at the development of Korea's legislature as a model, said a political scientist.

Youn Jung-suk, president of the Korean Legislative Studies Institute (KLSI), said that now is the time for the National Assembly to define its role in helping emerging democracies.

"I think the Korean model of democracy-building works better in nations where top-down decision-making is predominant, such as former communist states, those under authoritarian governments or nations that have been under dictatorship," Youn said in an interview with The Korea Times last Tuesday.

Since 1945, when Korea was liberated from Japan, the pro-democracy movement here has survived turbulent periods of military dictatorship and authoritarian control.

The decades-long effort finally bore fruit in the late 1980s. The rising demand for democracy from the people led the government to give in and let the people choose a president through direct voting.

Youn hinted that the top-down style in managing the nation facilitated economic growth during the nation's industrialization.

He observed that in the political arena, the practice prompted bottom-up democracy, as activists stood up against the repressive regime in the post-industrialization era.

Youn argued that as Korea has achieved democracy and prosperity through this unique path, it can give informed guidance to nations facing similar challenges.

The professor emeritus, who majored in Japanese studies at the University of Chicago in the 1960s, now teaches at Sogang University.

Before assuming the KLSI presidency, Youn served as president of Chung Ang University.

Founded in 1981, the KLSI has performed mainly academic and research activities in the fields of the parliamentary system, comparative studies of foreign legislatures and major legislative agendas.

Permanent Good

Youn called on policymakers mapping out aid strategy and policies to consider the Korean model of building democracy as one of the major areas where the country can assist less developed nations.

"As a donor, I think, Korea should think seriously about how it can help poor nations achieve permanent positive change. We need to look beyond one-off assistance measures and try to focus on helping their systems work better," he said.

His observation was in line with the message that the recent crisis in Haiti is sending the world.

In the wake of the magnitude 7 earthquake that pounded Haiti ― the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere ― last week, local experts and government officials are forecasting that the death toll may rise to 200,000.

Help is on the way from all around the world. Rescue workers and medical teams rushed to Haiti to save the lives of as many of those trapped under rubble as they could. Donations of medical products, water and other necessary items followed.

Korea joined the international rescue efforts by sending a team consisting of medical experts and rescue workers last Friday.

Meanwhile, the crisis in Haiti sheds light on a lesser-known consequence of calamities on poor nations ― poor infrastructure makes it difficult for them to rise from the ashes as they have almost nothing to begin with.

An American television journalist who was dispatched to cover the crisis said that he was told many times by locals that they need better construction of housing and other infrastructures to move forward in a sustainable manner.

Haitians want the world to help them in a manner that promotes sustainability, instead of simply one-off relief assistance.

Role of National Assembly

Among others, Youn pointed out that strengthening parliaments to make them work better was one of the sustainable ways to help people live in better conditions.

He called on the National Assembly to play a role in helping developing nations that are based on the relatively poor legislative representation system.

He said officials from Vietnam, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar had expressed deep interest in learning from Korea's experience in establishing a parliamentary representation system.

"They do have parliaments but their legislative bodies do not work properly in the parliamentary oversight of executive bodies and legislative assistance," the scholar said.

"In particular, they want to know how standing committees here work and to explore parliamentary think tanks, such as the National Assembly Research Service, that help lawmakers with expertise and policy recommendations."

Youn argued that the balance of power between legislature and the executive body is one of the areas that strengthened in emerging Asian nations.

Last year, Youn sat down with Speaker Kim Hyong-o to address the need for exchange programs with those nations. Kim was quite moved by his presentation, and directed his staff to find a role that the legislature could play in this regard.

"As Kim's term at the key post ends in May, his hands are tied. But I will keep trying to address the matter with the incoming speaker after that," he said.

"I assume that we can draw up a road map for the plan by next year."

Parliamentary Strengthening

When it comes to aid policy, the strengthening of democracy and parliamentary systems has been one of the major focuses of major donors such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has had a program to help poor nations develop their democracies since the 1970s.

But the agency said it was not until the late '80s or early '90s that agency's program started in earnest.

Since the agency chose the promotion of democracy as one of its principal goals in 1994, it remains particularly active in Africa. USAID produced technical assistance guidelines to help nations establish systems for legislation, oversight and representation.

The Canadian Development Agency and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency have also worked with developing nations to make their parliaments work better.

International institutions, including the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, and non-profit groups are also active in governance building in developing or poor nations to help them escape the past.

Dos and Don'ts

After Korea joined the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, a club of donors, intellectuals, such as former Prime Minister Lee Hong-koo, advised policymakers to follow a set of strict guidelines when charting aid strategy.

The guidelines warn not to try to use development assistance as a tool to show off Korea's standing in the world economy; not to try to lecture to other countries; and not to link aid to overseas business deals such as energy diplomacy.

"If Korea ignores the guidelines, the recipient governments will feel insulted. If this happens, Korea will end up a self-serving nation trying to take advantage of aid for its own sake," the former prime minister said.

Lee called on policymakers to keep their eyes on recipients' needs and then include their requests in aid packages.

"Recipient nations will come to expect Korea, the only recipient-turned-donor in the world, to become a donor that has a deeper understanding of their circumstances than other advanced nations, as it shares the experience of poverty in its past.

"They don't want us to feel pity for them but want us to be a thoughtful donor that has gone through similar experiences," Lee said.

Youn shared a similar view with Lee regarding the principles of Korea's aid policy, saying policymakers and aid workers need to take a close look at the unique circumstances facing recipients and come up with a country-specific aid strategy.