THE RISE OF A 3RD-PARTY IN SOUTH-KOREA - THE UNIFICATION-NATIONAL-PARTY IN THE 1992-NATIONAL-ASSEMBLY-ELECTION

An interesting outcome of the 1992 South Korean National Assembly Elec tion was the sudden rise of a new party based on a big business group. Setting up just two months before the legislative election, the Unifi cation National Party (UNP) emerged as a strong third party from nowhe re. The purpose of this article is to explore reasons behind the unexp ected rise of its support. This article pays attention to the immobili ty of party choice under a plurality rule electoral system. Unlike exi sting research which has focused on the effects of personal voting and the constituency campaign, this article instead suggests that a newly established cleavage after democratization forced voters to make an u nwilling choice between existing parties, ultimately helping the UNP's electoral breakthrough. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights res erved.