Korean Politics and Complex Systems Theory

Abstract

The political system of Korea is closely linked with the lower-level systems of Korean politics since it has the dynamic system that changes consistently through the interactions of external factors and a slight change in the early conditions of one system can bring about a tremendous change in the entire system. Therefore, it is important to understand Korean politics in this sense. The modern system of Korean politics rather operates on an axis of chaos and disorder than order. A political phenomenon is one that is totally linked with each other rather than having a temporary or isolated nature and its chaotic and dramatic nature is further enhanced in the environment of Korean politics as it gets to the recent times. This phenomenon may be regarded as an expression of systematic characteristics that are derived in the macroscopic procedure that Korean society is seeking stabilization as a complex system. Therefore in order for us to understand Korean politics, we need to recognize the complex properties linked to the problem of Korean society itself and dynamics of surrounding situation. Korean politics is getting more complex as it gets to recent days. The meaning of complexity can be interpreted in two ways. One is that the ground of Korean politics is getting complex and the other would be that the behavior patterns of political figures that play on the ground have been further complicated as compared to the past. Key words: Korean politics, complex systems theory, catastrophe theory, non-linearity, complexity