Dong-A Ilbo to Check Election Pledges

Dong-A Ilbo and the Korea Legislative Studies Institute (KLSI) have developed a campaign promise election tool, known as the FINE Index, as a part of a promotion to increase policy formulation activities in future election campaigns.

The index is based on three sub-indicators: feasibility, interactivity, and efficiency. The name “FINE Index” comes from the initials of these three words.

Starting with the upcoming local elections in May, Dong-A Ilbo and the KLSI will examine public pledges by using this index when the candidates who are running in the election are confirmed. When candidates are elected, the two will carry out evaluations one year later to check if the election winners kept their pledges.

In other future elections, including the 2007 presidential election, candidates’ pledges will be evaluated in a different way because the weight of each sub-indicator changes according to the particularities of each election.

The FINE Index was designed to find out how much candidates’ pledges reflect the demand of voters and what kinds of contributions are expected when suggested pledges are realized in local community.

In addition to this, by putting different weight to pledges in accordance with their importance, the index ensures that the pledge that is expected to make the biggest contribution to local community receives the highest points.

In developing the FINE Index, six experts participated: Park Chan-wook, political professor at Seoul National University and researcher of a manifesto team of KLSI; Lim Seong-ho, political professor of Kyunghee University; Lee Hyun-chul, legislative information researcher of the National Assembly Library; Lee Seok-won, professor of the Graduate School of Public Administration at Seoul National University; Gwak Jin-yeong, professor of the political diplomatic department of Konkuk University; and Han Jin-soo, president of the management department at Dongguk University.

Yasunori Sone, president of the Manifesto Research Institute of Keio University, was also an advisor on this project.

Kang-Myoung Chang In-Jik Cho tesomiom@donga.com cij1999@donga.com