Interest Groups in North Korean Politics.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- McEachern, Patrick
- Source
- Conference Papers -- Southern Political Science Association. 2008 Annual Meeting, p1. 36p. 2 Diagrams, 2 Charts, 2 Graphs.
- Subject
- *PRESSURE groups
*TOTALITARIANISM
NORTH Korean politics & government
- Language
North Korea is often characterized as a totalitarian state ruled by a single absolute ruler. This assumption motivates analyses that seek to explain or predict that state's actions. Analysts regularly explain North Korea's foreign policy as a function of Kim Jong Il's decision-making. Kim's persona and personal whims seemingly produce unusual policy to put it mildly. By definition, behavior is unusual when it is unexplained. I argue that much of the confusion around understanding North Korea's actions stems from this oversimplified model. It fails to account for the limited plurality in the North Korean system. While the totalitarian ideal type model approached reality in the past, North Korean political institutions have evolved and this conceptual application has grown obsolete. This paper documents how the state's political institutions have changed since the country's founding and highlights the formal and informal roles of each major bureaucracy today. The Korean Worker's Party and the role of ideology have declined, but I contend the National Defense Commission and "military-first politics" have not taken its place as reigning supreme as often argued. Correctly grasping North Korean domestic politics is the critical first step in explaining and predicting the state's actions on the international stage. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]