• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.20-43
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• 2017

While the Internet has been used to galvanise people for the collective good, many have voiced concerns over the noise and vitriol present online and polarisation. In Singapore where the government regulates traditional mainstream media such as print and broadcast, the online space has been described as a "Wild Wild West" rife with rumours, untruths and misinformation. Such developments do not only exert a potential negative effect on the deliberative nature of public discourse but also skew bias towards the online space, affecting the ability of online users to communicate with authority and power. This study seeks to examine the rationality of the cyberspace through using a new "rationality" framework to analyse political discourse online. Comprising objectivity, emotionality and partisanship, the rationality framework was applied to a content analysis of 197 blogs with political content in 2014. The analysis indicated that the online political space was not the Wild Wild West that it was touted to be with significant levels of objectivity and non-partisanship. There was a stark absence of emotional discourse, and relationships were observed between bloggers' anonymity and rationality. Cognisant of academia's and policymakers' interest on the quality and effects of online discourse, the proposed analytical framework and the study findings hold implications for both developed and developing countries.

• Korean Journal of Legislative Studies
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.203-239
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• 2018

Responsible government can be achieved when social cleavages are institutionalized via political competition and social interests are represented by responsible parties. This paper aims to investigate the factors that determine welfare expenditures in Korean local governments by analyzing partisanship and political competition factors simultaneously in the same model. This paper also argues that the relationship between the political factors and welfare expenditures in local governments is not linearly increasing as the previous studies claim. This paper examines the welfare expenditures in Korean municipality-level local governments in 2007, 2011, and 2015. The primary findings are: 1) the partisanship of the head of local government and the party distribution of local assembly members have meaningful effect on the welfare expenditures and the divided governments do not show significantly different effect on welfare expenditures from unified governments, which is contrary to the extant studies, 2) the partisan effects of the head and the local assembly vary according to the levels of municipalities (Gu, Gun, and city), mainly due to the difference in types of revenues and expenditures and 3) the relationship between seats shares of progressive parties in local assembly and the welfare expenditure is not linearly increasing one. The effect of seats shares of progressive parties dramatically begins to increase when the seats shares are in 40%-60%. With these findings, this paper highlights the conservative nature of head of local governments with Hannara party (or Saenuri Party), the conservative leaning of independent candidates, and the conservative orientation of local assemblies in the regions dominated by Democratic Party (and its equivalents).

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.79-115
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• 2022

This study aims to account for electoral choice in the 2020 presidential election by focusing on social identity which forms the basis for core partisan groups. Two views compete to explain the origins of polarization, policy versus party. One emphasizes policy as more influential in choosing presidential candidates. This follows the tradition of retrospective voting theory in which voters' choice rely on government performance. Incumbent president whose performance proves well are rewarded to be reelected. Policy performance is based on measures around distinctive preferences for government spending. Republican Individuals prefer individual responsibility to government support, while Democratic counterparts support government support. Another perspective put an emphasis on the role partisanship which favors in-party members and disfavors partisan out-groups. Interparty animosity plays the key role in determining electoral behavior. This study relies on the Views of the Electorate Research (VOTER) Survey which provides a panel data of several waves from 2011 to 2020. A comparative evaluation of two views highlights three findings. First, policy matters. Policy preferences of voters are the primary drives of political behavior. Electoral outcomes in 2020 turned out to be the results of policy considerations of voters. 53.7 percent of voters tilted toward individual responsibility voted for Trump, whereas 70.4 percent of those favorable views of government support than individual responsibility voted for Biden. Thus effects of policy correspond to a positive difference of 26.4 percent points. Second, partisanship effects are of similar extent in influencing electoral choice of candidates: Democrats are less likely to vote for Trump by 42.4 percent points, while Republicans are less likely to vote for Biden by 48.7 percent points. Third, animosity of Republicans toward Democrat core groups creates 26.5 percent points of favoring Trump over Biden. Democrat animosity toward Republican core groups creates a positive difference of 13.7 percent points of favoring Biden.

• Korean journal of communication and information
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• v.84
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• pp.152-188
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• 2017

This study stereotyped the media on the basis of ideological inclinations and media types and explored the news coverage through word analysis, network analysis, and frame analysis. There was no difference between conservative media and progressive media in terms of the amount of news. The conservative mainstream media considered the THAAD rumor as an unnecessary misunderstanding and a rumor based conflict of the south-south. The progressive mainstream media mentioned much about Hwang Gyoan, external influences, and lies and highlighted the government's opinion that there was external influence that spread a vicious rumor. Conservative media mentioned on the bringing about social disturbance and in case of progressive media mentioned social disturbance, and progressive media mentioned the responsibility of government and the attitude of conservative media about the diffusion of the rumor. In conclusion the press framed the THAAD rumor on the basis of their ideological inclinations instead of the role of journalist.

• Analyses & Alternatives
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.171-200
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• 2024

Labour unions have traditionally been regarded as a key actor in improving income inequality. However, recent studies have revealed that the relationship between labour unions and income inequality is not straightforward but it varies depending on various institutional and political contexts. This study focuses on institutions of collective bargaining and government partisanship as major conditions affecting the income inequality reduction effect of labour unions and attempts an empirical analysis. In particular, we systematically analyzed the effects of union density on income inequality in terms of market income and disposable income, using panel data from OECD countries of the period 1990~2019 when the Cold War ended and globalization intensified. The analytical results show that the effect of unions on reducing income inequality was more pronounced in disposable income than in market income, and the effect was conditional. The union's effects varied depending on the degree of centralization of collective bargaining rather than the coordination mechanism. Contrary to previous studies, the union's impact was evidenced in centrist governments rather than left-wing governments. These findings indicates that in the era of globalization, labour unions are adopting more flexible political strategies, moving away from their traditional relationship with left-wing parties. These results suggests that unions' political and economic roles shows both continuity and change in the era of rising inequality.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.352-367
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• 2020

This study critically reviewed whether the South Korean press reported the issue of conflict between South Korea and Japan in a way consistent with their journalistic values. To this end, this study conducted frame analysis and textual analysis for the articles of three press(Chosun Ilbo, Hankyoreh and KBS) from the three major branches of conflict (Korea's Supreme Court's ruling on forced labor compensation in October 2018, the Japanese government's decision to regulate exports in July 2019 and the Korean government's decision to end GSOMIA in August 2019) to one week. There were many superficial reports of simply relaying conflicts around the occurrence and outcome of events, and there were few reports that analyzed the context in depth or suggested alternatives. And partisan reporting, which is cited as a key issue in the Korean journalism, has been strongly revealed in the midst of a conflict between Korea and Japan, a national emergency situation.