All the matters regarding the supporters association system are stipulated in the Political Fund Law. Accordingly, the meanings regarding the supporters association are inseparably connected with the political fund, and it is because “support payments” raised through the supporters association system become important routes of raising the political fund. For this reason local council members are bound to have a keen interest in the political fund that is needed in the election process.
However, the problems begin with the current political fund law in which elected public official candidates including the members of the National Assembly can have the supporters association with only local council members being excluded. Local government heads who are regarded as the same local politicians as local council members can now have the supporters association through the amendment of the Political Fund Law. Nevertheless, the fact that it is still impossible up to the present time to institute the supporters association for local council members because of having to follow the decision of the Constitutional Court is a big problem.
Beginning with the local council member elections in 1991, nationwide simultaneous local elections have been held six times with the result that the local autonomy system is on the threshold of maturity.
Despite this background, it is very unfortunate realities that the supporters association system for local council members who are the driving force of local politics is restricted. Particularly, it is all the more so in that the creation of positive effects of the supporters association system for local council members is ignored. Keeping these problems in mind, the analytical and systematical logic to overcome the problems with our country’s supporters association system was constructed in the following five stages.
First, along with the analysis of the history of the Political Fund Law and its development process, the operating realities of the supporters associations were diagnosed. Second, the Constitutional Court’s decision cases and discussions to refute them were compared and examined. Third, the necessity of instituting the supporters association system for local council members was discussed and the survey on the specialists’ understanding of this was conducted. Fourth, the implications of instituting the supporters association system were derived through the analysis of Japan’s cases. Fifth, the comprehensive interpretation of what was discussed above and countermeasures were explored.