An Analysis of Political Appointments of the Recent Governments in South Korea

The purpose of this study is to examine what characterizes the political appointments of the recent governments in South Korea from February 2008 to January 2016. In this study, we will assess the political appointment of the latest two regimes’ political executives by analyzing their backgrounds. In particular, we will focus on the ministers and vice-ministers of the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye governments. We collected data from websites of all ministries and newspapers dealing with the related background information. This data includes information on appointees’ major career, job relevancy, academic background, studies abroad and state examination for career entry. Also, we considered political connections such as membership of the Commission on Presidential Transition and the same political party as the President, and appointees’ affiliated college, birthplace, and gender to appraise the validity, on representation and competence, of the two governments’ political appointments.