Korean Association for Public Policy, etc. "Presidential Candidates' Pledges Becoming Similar... Excessive Populist Promises"

Korean Policy Studies Association and Korean Public Administration Association Evaluation Results
"Close to Populist Pledges Without Considering Fiscal Responsibility"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] Compared to previous presidential elections, the policy pledges of candidates in this election have been evaluated as similar. In particular, criticism has been raised that each candidate is excessively making populist pledges with little feasibility in terms of finance and timelines.

The Korean Association for Policy Studies and the Korean Association for Public Administration announced on the 23rd the results of their evaluation of policy pledges from presidential candidates of the four major parties: the Democratic Party of Korea, the People Power Party, the Justice Party, and the People Party.

According to the announcement, a key characteristic of the policy pledges in this election is that "the pledges among candidates are becoming more similar compared to the past." They analyzed that "this trend of convergence in pledges also indicates that the discovery of public policy demands is becoming more systematized."

They also stated, "In particular, there is ongoing criticism that candidates are excessively making populist pledges without considering finances," adding, "The evaluation results showing many pledges with insufficient feasibility or timeline plans align with this criticism."

Furthermore, they criticized, "On issues such as polarization and income disparity, all candidates promise to create quality jobs, strengthen welfare services, and promote balanced regional development, but the content of the pledges is lacking in feasibility and concreteness, such as methods for securing budgets and timeline plans."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.