In order for elections to be recognized for their legitimacy in a representative democracy, freedom of campaign and equal opportunities for election campaigns must be guaranteed. The election public service system is a system in which the government or local governments compensate for election campaign costs so that candidates can achieve equal opportunities for election campaigns regardless of their economic power(2). In Korea, with the enactment of the Public Official Election and Election Corruption Prevention Act in 1994, the election public service system has been continuously expanding for more than 20 years (1). In particular, the election public service system not only realized equal opportunities for election campaigns but also had a positive effect as a catalyst for establishing fair elections, but the excessive expansion of the election public service system resulted in shrinking freedom of election campaigns.
Unlike Korea, however, the public election system is not spreading in the U.S., as it is believed that restrictions on election costs for candidates could infringe on campaign freedom(2). Therefore, the election public service system cannot be forcibly applied to all candidates, and candidates can decide on their own whether to adopt the election public service system. As a result, the U.S. election public system gradually declined due to the neglect of leading candidates in the presidential election and the controversy over unconstitutionality in the state election (3).
In the end, Korea, which wants to achieve “equal opportunities for election campaigns” over the system of election public service, is continuously expanding, while the U.S., which values “freedom of election campaign,” is withering (1). In particular, a comparison between Korea and the U.S. election system with Rolls’ theory of justice revealed that Korea’s election system can approach a more just election system by maintaining the freedom of the campaign and actively expanding the equality of the campaign opportunities in the U.S (2). Therefore, in order to better ensure equal opportunities for campaigns in accordance with the purpose of the introduction of Korea’s electoral public system, efforts to gradually expand campaign freedom by easing or abolishing the current election law regulations are urgent.
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