South Korea’s Electoral System from Constitutional Democracy Perspectives

South Korea is currently facing a new social change of ethnic and cultural diversification due to a rapid increase in the immigrating population. Such a social change is expected to be further expedited due to ongoing globalization. From a constitutional law standpoint, such a change accompanies most fundamental issues for the law of the constitution of fundamental rights protection of minorities in a representative democracy and of the representation and participation of minorities in the political process. This paper primarily looks into in this vein the system of representation and participation in political processes by means of public elections. South Korea has a positive precedent of bringing changes into the institutions and the practices through proactive legislative efforts and decisions of the Constitutional Court, for example, in increasing the representation of women as political, social and cultural minorities in the political process at the national and local levels, through changes in relevant law and system of public elections. This precedent may serve as an exemplary model for the situation of rapid ethnic diversification and anticipated constitutional law issues of representation and inclusion of minorities into the overall constitutional-political process.