National Endowment for Democracy
"Democratization of Political Parties in East Asia"
March 21–22, 2000
Seoul, Korea
Introduction

Session I: Party Structure

Session II: Party Decision Making

Session III: The Candidate Nomination Process

Session IV: Citizen Outreach

Agenda

Participants 		Introduction

The working conference on “Democratization of Political Parties in East Asia,” held in Seoul, on March 21–22, 2000, was the third meeting sponsored by the Democracy Forum for East Asia, a collaborative program of the Sejong Institute and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The Democracy Forum was established by President Kim Dae-jung and President Bill Clinton in November 1998 to further democracy and the market economy in East Asia. The inaugural conference was held on July 13–14, 1999 in Seoul. This working conference, the second of three planned for 1999–2000, focused on the difficult political and organizational challenges surrounding the democratization of political parties, a crucial priority for the improvement of democracy in East Asia. The participants consisted of party officials, elected representatives, leaders of nongovernmental organizations, and scholars of democracy and political parties. They came from eight Asian countries—Cambodia, Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand—as well as Poland and the United States.

With the president of the Sejong Institute, Dalchoong Kim, in attendance, the working conference opened with brief welcoming remarks by Jong Wan Kim of the Sejong Institute and Larry Diamond of the NED. The working conference consisted of four panel discussions with brief opening remarks by designated presenters followed by a roundtable discussion of the theme and issues for each session. The working conference was conducted in closed session to encourage frank and open discussion among the participants.

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