Legislative Politics

Abstract

This chapter discusses the general characteristics of the South Korean National Assembly frequently observed since democratization in 1987. Among other things, the chapter primarily focuses on the two major actors in the South Korean parliamentary arena, standing committees and legislative parties. It starts by describing the evolution of the National Assembly, maintaining that the South Korean legislative process has been heavily dominated by the president and the executive branch in one way or another. This observation was never truer than during the authoritarian eras, but has also been the case since the start of the Sixth Republic. With respect to the major actors, political parties in the National Assembly can be said to play a predominant role, while the standing committees have atrophied despite their nominal centrality and positional importance. All the explanations in this chapter suggest that the so-called inter-party consultative system more often than not gives way to majoritarianism in the actual legislative process when the two modes collide.