Fission, fusion, reform and failure: Roh Moo-hyun’s administration

For the last two decades, democratic politics in South Korea have been accompanied by two salient political issues: the continuous fission and fusion of political parties, and regionalism. This chapter discusses the origins, dynamics and decline of the Roh Moo-hyun administration and reviews the coalition politics in the post-democratisation period in South Korea, thus aiming to place the conflict between government and opposition, and the Roh Moo-hyun administration's attempt to attain a majority status in the legislature in historical context. It describes four major reform initiatives requiring legislation to illustrate the difficulties encountered by the Roh Moo-hyun administration and the ruling Uri Party in the legislature. The chapter turns attention to the president's proposal to form a grand coalition to overcome institutional constraints. After the failure of the proposal for a grand coalition and the two by-election defeats, Roh Moo-hyun rapidly lost control.