The Authoritarian Origins of the President-Ruling Party Relationship in South Korea: The Marginalization of the Democratic Republican Party (DRP) and the Establishment of Park Chung-Hee's Personalist Dictatorship

In South Korea, ruling parties have historically been strongly subordinated to the presidency. What were the origins of this president-ruling party relationship? This paper aims to answer this question by examining the political dynamics that led to the marginalization of the Democratic Republican Party (DRP) and the establishment of Park Chung-hee's personalist dictatorship, from the beginning of the military regime in 1961 to the early Yushin era in 1973. Few previous studies, grounded in theoretical frameworks, have provided in-depth case studies on how an authoritarian leader establishes a personalist dictatorship by overcoming other regime elites seeking to build and maintain a collective leadership system, such as a hegemonic party regime, particularly in the South Korean context. In contrast, this paper argues that factionalized regime elites, combined with a ruler's enhanced ability to punish other elite factions and control financial resources, increase the likelihood that an (electoral) authoritarian regime will shift toward a personalist dictatorship. The Park era clearly illustrates these political dynamics. During this period, the ruling DRP was internally factionalized, while Park's power was increasingly enhanced due to the strong presidency, executive dominance over parliament under the “developmental state,” and his growing popularity fueled by rapid economic growth. Accordingly, he could minimize the size of the winning coalition by effectively employing a “divide and rule” strategy, thereby concentrating all power in his hands. The complete subordination of the ruling party to the president was a key byproduct of the consolidation of Park's personalist dictatorship. This paper uses a within-case analysis based on qualitative methods.