The activities of the president’s spouse constitute institutionalized yet informal practices embedded within the policy ideas of each administration and structurally constrained by the architecture of presidential governance. While these activities ...
The activities of the president’s spouse constitute institutionalized yet informal practices embedded within the policy ideas of each administration and structurally constrained by the architecture of presidential governance. While these activities are policy-bounded, their outcomes generate institutional feedback effects that reinforce democratic stability and public approval of state administration.
The role of the presidential spouse has evolved through the long-term accumulation of traditions and customary practices, producing a path-dependent role configuration distinct from formally codified offices. Based on an analysis of 5,396 publicly disclosed activities, this study identifies 25 core duty categories and reconstructs the empirical structure of this informal institution.
From a historical–institutionalist perspective, the foundational critical juncture occurred between liberation in 1945 and the constitutionalization of the presidential system in 1948, and was further consolidated during the Korean War. These early choices—emphasizing national security, family responsibility, and welfare concerns for children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities within a Confucian normative framework—generated a self-reinforcing developmental path that continues across administrations.
After democratization, the activities of presidential spouses expanded quantitatively and evolved through gradual institutional change, particularly layering and drift. New domains such as women and family affairs, environmental protection, religion, and media engagement were added, while traditional welfare and security oriented functions persisted. Even amid political and economic crises, the institution did not experience rupture; instead, change was mediated through policy-idea-bounded recalibration, demonstrating strong path continuity.
Empirical analysis confirms that increased presidential spouse activity is positively associated with presidential approval and reduced social polarization, but negatively related to press freedom, revealing a persistent tension between informal influence and democratic accountability. Despite lacking legal authority, presidential spouses mobilize substantial resources, creating surveillance gaps that the media seeks to expose.
The persistent failure to formalize this role reflects the interests of an entrenched informal system and the strategies of political actors. Institutional ambiguity sustains the system while enabling responsibility displacement, whereby accountability is shifted from individuals to abstract structures. This reliance on personal virtue represents a process of de-institutionalization of responsibility, underscoring the need for control and transparency-oriented formalization rather than authority-expanding reform.