Stony Brook University Faculty of Sciences and Humanities

[Hankyung Essay] Lessons from the U.S. Presidential System

There is something admirable in American politics: the regularity of elections every two years. The U.S. has a four-year presidential term. Two years after a presidential election, congressional elections are held. The American people use these elections to assess the president's performance over the past two years, deciding whether to give power to the opposition or the ruling party in Congress. Then, another two years later, the presidential election takes place, where the American people decide whether to give the president another chance or elect a new president. With elections every two years, political parties in the U.S. immediately focus on policy battles for the next election after the current one. This regular cycle of elections effectively implements the principle of checks and balances.

What about South Korea? Congressional elections are held every four years, and presidential elections every five years, so the cycles don’t align. Sometimes, the public must vote within just one year, and other times, they must wait for four years. As a result, when the opposition party is a minority, South Korea sometimes experiences abnormal legislative activities like physical clashes in the National Assembly or protests outside the legislature. When the opposition party is the majority, it often blocks government budgets or abuses impeachment procedures to disrupt governance.

Last week, South Korea went through significant turmoil and crisis. President Yoon Suk Yeol entrusted his future to the ruling party, and ruling party leader Han Dong Hoon proposed suspending the president’s duties and promoting an orderly resignation. This presents a golden opportunity to advance Korean democracy.

During the democratization movement in 1987, people were so excited about the direct election of the president that no one paid attention to aligning the election cycles. Without much thought, the three major Mr. Kim politicians who wanted to be a president at the time agreed to establish a five-year single-term presidency. Despite rapid economic growth, Korean democracy has remained unstable, and one of the main reasons we have been unable to address long-term national challenges like educational reform and pension reform is this issue.

I hope that the National Assembly takes this opportunity to make a one-point constitutional amendment to establish a four-year presidential term with re-election. It would be ideal to hold the presidential election alongside the nationwide local elections on June 3, 2026. If an early presidential election is held on June 3, 2025, the five-year single term should be the last, and a constitutional amendment should be made to implement a four-year presidential term with re-election starting in 2030, in order to align the election cycles. This will allow the people to evaluate and judge the government through elections every two years, enabling them to choose their leaders."

In 1762, French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in his that “the people are free rulers only when they vote; once voting is over, they become slaves.” The Founding Fathers of the United States, who designed the first presidential system in 1787, created the federal constitution in a way that ensured regular elections every two years, thus overcoming this issue. South Korea also needs a constitutional amendment to fully realize the sovereignty of the people.
 

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