투표 참여에 있어 노동조합 효과 분석

Labor union, saddling on both the economy and politics, pursues political influence as well as economic gain. Regarding the source of labor unions’ political power, which is recognized by political parties and the government, the field of industrial and labor relations has focused on the ‘union effect’. It means that union members are more likely to vote than non union members. With this notion, studies have concluded that labor unions promote their members’ political participation and thus performs a democratic function. Such empirical studies are sometimes criticized for only emphasizing the positive roles of labor unions by proving the union effect. This study, based on the ‘civic voluntarism model(CVM)’ which is elaborated by Verba et al., focused on the point from where the union’ political power come. As the CVM guides, ‘resource’, engagement’, and ‘recruitment’ are adopted to explain the union members’ political participation. This study used data of years when major elections were held in South Korea since 2003 to prove the theoretical prediction that union members have higher chance to vote with unions offering resource such as civic skills, time, or money along with systematic support. The data was obtained by Korean General Social Survey. In addition, this study confirmed a ‘spillover effect’ that the union effect goes beyond the union members’ political behavior by making members’ spouses, who share their resources, more likely to vote. It may be the indirect effect which may explain the findings that countries with higher union density shows higher voter turn out rate. The political power source of South Korean labor union and relevant issues are discussed.