Policy in Democratic and Authoritarian Korea: Power Ascension Theory

• In Event: New Frontiers of Korean Political Economy

Abstract

This paper is motivated by two issues, the first of which is that studies of public policy involve multiple theories and frameworks that have focused mostly policy change, certain narraow aspects of policy making, but not the content of policy outcomes. The second issue is that extant theories and frameworks have been applied mostly to policy making in the United States and, somewhat less, to other democracies. Our purpose then is to develop a truly comparative theoretical framework that can account for policy content in the broadest array of democratic and nondemocratic political systems. Our framework is known as Power Ascension Theory and after discussion of the essentials of this this framework, we test its explanatory power by applying it to policy outcomes in South Korea. This application to South Korea will involve explaining policy outcomes in both the authoritarian and post-transition, democratic periods.

Authors

• Yong Jae Kim, Hawaii Pacific University

• Dennis P. Patterson, Texas Tech University