Government Approval Ratings Slipping

In polls conducted by civic groups before the third anniversary of President Roh Moo-hyun’s inauguration next Saturday, the public gave lower marks to his administration’s performance than it did last year.

The Citizen’s Coalition for Better Government released the results of a survey of 426 professionals, including civil servants, professors, and businessmen at a forum held at the National Human Rights Commission building yesterday to evaluate the Roh administration’s performance over its first three years.

The government scored on average 2.43 out of 5, which is 0.11 points lower than last year’s score of 2.54.

The adequacy of government personnel management, and the level of the government’s democracy, efficiency, and credibility of governance were areas in which the administration got lower marks than last year. The government did not receive a single “average” score (3.0 points) in any evaluation area.

In the category of specific policy evaluations, housing price stabilization saw the greatest fall in score, from last year’s 3.24 to 2.32.

Citizens United for Better Society also held a policy discussion at the Korea Press Center yesterday with theme, “An Evaluation of the Past Three Years of the Roh Administration,” and criticized the administration’s governance.

In his keynote speech, Professor Park Hyo-jong of Seoul National University evaluated the past three years as a period where the government had determination, but lacked know-how. He added that the government’s low approval ratings are due to its appointment of certain like-minded people to the cabinet, obsession with the past, and lack of comprehensive leadership.

The Poll–

The market research firm Ipsos Korea conducted a telephone survey on 1,000 adults nationwide for two days starting last Monday, and found out that only 30.9 percent of the poll’s respondents were happy with the Roh administration.

Meanwhile, 69 percent answered the administration is doing a poor job. The government scored 50 points out of 100 (with a 95 percent confidence interval and a margin of error of ±3.1 percentage points).

If we compare those figures with Dong-A Ilbo surveys conducted using the same methods in 2004 and 2005, the results are pessimistic. In a February 2004 survey, 31 percent of respondents said they were happy with the administration, which scored 53 points. In 2005, 38.4 percent approved of the government, resulting in a 56-point score.

Regarding the government’s real estate policy, the majority of people (69.3 percent) were skeptical of its success, while 28.6 percent remained hopeful.

Asked whom they support to become the next president, Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak ranked first with a 25.1 percent support rating, followed by former Prime Minister Goh Kun with a 22.6 percent support rating. Third place went to Grand National Party leader Park Geun-hye with a 15.0 percent support rating. Former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and former Health Minister Kim Geun-tae received 7.4 percent and 3.2 percent support ratings, respectively.

ditto@donga.com sunny60@donga.com