Woo-Jin Moon
Korea University · Social Sciences
About the Lab
Professor Woo-Jin Moon's research lab specializes in comparative party systems, legislative politics, and electoral behavior, with a particular focus on institutional incentives shaping party competition and legislative productivity in presidential and multiparty systems. The lab investigates how electoral institutions, such as district rules, veto player configurations, and campaign finance dynamics, influence party strategies, candidate positioning, and policy outcomes—especially in East Asian and non-Western democratic contexts. A central theme is the interplay between institutional design, party institutionalization, and the effectiveness of campaign spending and regional clientelism in shaping electoral outcomes.
Research Overview
Research Output Trend
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Selected Papers
15Electoral competition is here specified as revolving around both candidate policy positions and non-policy issues.Two candidates spend their resources on non-policy issues to sway citizens' ideological voting decisions but they are constrained by their party activists who provide them with electoral resources. In this setting, a candidate with a resource advantage converges more towards the centre, but a candidate with a resource disadvantage diverges more from the centre. This asymmetry in two
In this article, I offer a theoretical model specifying the electoral mechanism in South Korea. In the model, political parties offer regional benefits to sway the ideological voting decisions of voters. Regional benefits are an effective way of winning regional votes as the parties’ ideological positions become less distinguishable. Analysis of the model shows that political parties receive stronger regional support (1) as the ideological positions of voters and their regional party become more
In this article, the reason why incumbent spending is less effective than challenger spending is explained. The argument is that incumbent spending efficiency depends on the marginality of seats: safe incumbent spending is less effective than marginal incumbent spending, since safe incumbents have to buy fewer extreme voters, whereas marginal incumbents can easily buy a larger number of swing voters. The analysis of the US Senate elections between 1974 and 2000 shows that safe incumbent spending
Abstract This chapter explains how the electoral system in South Korea has formed into a two-party-dominated system and identifies the elements that prevent a third party from winning seat shares proportional to its vote share. The chapter discusses the features that characterize political parties’ campaign strategies and the voting behaviour of South Korean citizens. Candidates pursue personal votes by focusing on negative campaigning and advertising their valences. This chapter also identifies
기존 연구들이 제시한 다양한 정당 유형들을 통합적으로 검토한 크라우웰(Krouwel 2012)은 “개인화된 정당”(personalized parties)을 분석에 포함하지 않았고, 라핫(Rahat 2022)이 제시한 개인화된 정당 모형들은 한국 정당을 설명하기 어렵다는 한계가 있다. 본 논문은 크라우웰과 라핫이 제시한 정당 분류 기준에 “정당 제도화 수준”(the level of party institutionalization)이라는 기준을 추가하여 서구뿐만 아니라 비서구 민주주의 국가의 정당을 분류하기 위한 분석 틀을 제시하였다. 본 논문은 정당 모형의 특징들을 조작화하여 서로 다른 정당 모형들의 차이와 유사성을 비교하였다. 본 논문의 분석은 한국 정당은 라핫이 제시한 개인화된 정당 모형 중 “지도자 정당”(leader party) 모형과 가장 유사하다는 사실을 발견하였다. 그러나 본 논문은 한국 정당과 서구의 지도자 정당은 본질적으로 서로 다르다는 사실을 지적하고, 한국 정당을
Abstract In this article, I offer a theory of lawmaking in multiparty presidential systems with different legislative institutions. I present a model that combines Krehbiel's pivotal politics theory with Tsebelis's veto players theory. This model simplifies various institutional veto players into the de facto veto players. I analyze the model to explain how the government type (unified versus divided governments), the legislative rules (majoritarian versus supermajoritarian rules), and the party
이 논문은 유권자들이 자신의 사회경제적 지위에 기반한 투표를 하지 않는 이유를 설명하기 위한 이론을 제시하였다. 공간모형의 분석결과에 의하면, 사회경제적 지위투표는 (1) 유인가치에 대한 유권자의 민감도, (2) 정당 간 유인가치 차이, (3) 정당 간 재분배정책 유사성, (4) 재분배정책 외의 다른 정책에 대한 유권자의 민감도, (5) 재분배정책 외의 다른 정책에 대한 정당 간 입장차이, (6) 정당정책 및 유인가치에 대한 정보의 불확실성과 반비례한다. 이 논문은 이러한 결과들을 적용하여 영국에서의 계급투표가 미국과 한국에 비해 더 현저한 이유를 설명한다. 마지막으로, 이 논문의 분석결과가 소득불평등에 대해 가지고 있는 함의에 대해 논의한다.
Research Areas
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