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Interest Groups in North Korean Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

Patrick McEachern
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Abstract

North Korea is often characterized as some form of highly centralized rule: totalitarian, posttotalitarian, corporatist, or personalistic. This article argues that much of the confusion around understanding North Korea's actions stems from misplaced models. Much of the current thinking on North Korea's politics does not account for the limited institutional plurality in the system. The article 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 Workers Party and the role of Juche have declined, but the National Defense Commission and “military-first politics” have not taken their place as reigning supreme. Rather the interaction between the Korean Workers Party, military, and cabinet helps explain and moderate policy outcomes.

Keywords

North KoreaDPRKinstitutionsinterest groupspluralismcabinetNDCKWP

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Type
Articles
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Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , August 2008 , pp. 235 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

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References

Notes

For helpful comments, I would like to thank Mark Gasiorowski, Bill Clark, Wonik Kim, Andrew Scobell, John Merrill, Robert Rauchhaus, this journal's editor, and two anonymous reviewers.Google Scholar

The views expressed in the article are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Department of State or the US government.Google Scholar

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