‘Above all, it will boil down to money problems’: The impact of gender-targeted public financing on political parties and women candidates in South Korea
| Author | Ki-young Shin,Soo Hyun Kwon |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/01925121221078232 |
| Published date | 01 January 2023 |
| Date | 01 January 2023 |
https://doi.org/10.1177/01925121221078232
International Political Science Review
2023, Vol. 44(1) 91 –106
© The Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/01925121221078232
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‘Above all, it will boil down to money
problems’: The impact of gender-
targeted public financing on political
parties and women candidates in
South Korea
Ki-young Shin
Ochanomizu University, Japan
Soo Hyun Kwon
Sogang University, South Korea
Abstract
This article analyzes the conditions under which gender-targeted public financing can improve gender
equality in politics by taking South Korea as an example. The South Korean laws require that 10% of state
funds for parties be spent on women’s leadership training. Additional financial subsidies are granted to
qualifying parties for subsidizing the campaign of female candidates. Our analysis indicates, however, that the
outcome is mixed. Parties’ practices of candidate nomination which have privileged male politicians have not
changed. Instead, a large portion of the single-member district seats and public funding regime has facilitated
large parties to monopolize additional public funding. This article suggests that the institutional design of
public finance, without taking into consideration broader institutional frameworks, could end up reinforcing
existing inequality.
Keywords
Gender-targeted public financing, state funding for party, women’s political representation, South Korea,
candidate nomination
Introduction
Political funds are indispensable when running for office, yet economic inequality prevents a range
of talented people from entering politics (Nelson, 2000; Noveck, 2010). While women candidates
Corresponding author:
Ki-young Shin, Ochanomizu University, Institute for Gender Studies, Department of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies,
Otsuka 2-1-1, Bunkyoku, Tokyo, 112-8610, Japan.
Email: kiyoungshin11@gmail.com
1078232IPS0010.1177/01925121221078232International Political Science ReviewShin and Kwon
research-article2022
Special Issue Article
92 International Political Science Review 44(1)
raise the same amounts of money as their male counterparts (Barber et al., 2016; Burrell, 2014;
Kitchens and Swers, 2016), the high cost of elections and a lack of money are considerable barriers
for politically eligible women and young people who want to pursue a career in politics (Inter-
Parliamentary Union, 2021; Murray et al., 2021; Murray, 2021; Werner and Mayer, 2007). When
they manage to stand for election, women tend to rely on smaller, and often individual, donations
compared to male candidates (Feo et al., 2021; Tolley et al., 2020). If political funding is left exclu-
sively to personal fundraising capabilities, the under-representation of economically disadvantaged
women and minorities is perpetuated.
Public funding schemes have been created to tackle such structural inequalities and promote
gender equality in politics (Ballington and Kahane, 2014; Ohman, 2018). In countries where the
state funds political parties, gender-targeted public financing (GTPF) has been introduced as one
way of incentivizing parties to recruit more women into politics by providing additional public
funds or reducing certain amounts of funds (Feo and Piccio, 2020; Mazur et al., 2020). In countries
where the candidates are responsible for raising election funds, public funds are given directly to
women to reduce their financial barriers (Muriaas et al., 2020). If GTPF is used in conjunction with
gender quotas, it can be an even more effective way of increasing women’s political
representation.
However, as the policy ideas behind GTPF are relatively new, we know little about how differ-
ent types of GTPF actually function in various political contexts. While about 30 countries have
adopted such measures, the status of female members of parliament (MPs)’ numerical representa-
tion varies from a near parity in France and Mexico to 14.6% in Ghana. Empirical research on such
measures is limited, except for a few seminal comparative studies on their early outcomes
(Ballington and Kahane, 2014; Muriaas et al., 2020; Ohman, 2018). There is a need for more
knowledge about how empirical GTPF policy impacts the promotion of gender equality in political
representation in relation to specific electoral systems and gender quotas, political parties’ response
to it, and change of women candidates’ motivation.
This article takes South Korea (hereafter Korea) as an example to help us understand how GTPF
functions in a mixed electoral majoritarian multi-party system. The country adopted GTPF in 2002
when only a few countries had introduced similar measures (Inter-Parliamentary Union Parline). It
has implemented multiple provisions of GTPF along with gender quotas at several national and
subnational elections in the last 20 years. However, the percentage of women MPs has increased
very slowly from 5.9% in 2000 to 19% in 2020. Why are there still so few women in the Korean
parliament despite the introduction of quotas and GTPF? How do we account for the limited suc-
cess of these measures in national politics?
Public funding for parties and elections is highly institutionalized in Korea from a comparative
perspective. It has introduced strong legal regulatory frameworks regarding political funds, with a
wide range of measures to control campaign expenses and donations. Parties rely on state funds for
high proportions of their revenue. These institutional features make Korea an ideal case to test how
GTPF works in highly institutionalized public funding contexts and examine the factors obstruct-
ing its effectiveness. This article analyzes the long-term implementation of GTPF and quotas in
Korea to delve into this question with a focus on how parties have responded to the new funding
and quota schemes in their recruitment and nomination decisions.
Literature review and theory: conditions of effective GTPF
While public funding has been institutionalized in many states to reduce the cost of elections and
to prevent corruption (Norris and Van Es, 2016), GTPF differs in that it specifically links the use
and distribution of state funding to gender equality measures (Murray et al., 2021). Funds are
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