The Korean Journal of Economic Studies
A Study on the Effect of the 2012 National Assembly Act Amendment
Sangsin Kim (KDI), Jaehoon Kim (KDI)Year 2016Vol. 64No. 4
Abstract
The National Assembly Act Amendment, also known as the ‘NationalAssembly Advancement Act,’ was enacted in 2012 during the 18th NationalAssembly with the aim of preventing floor violence from disrupting thelegislative process. This study focuses on the effects of the Act and developsa simple theoretical model to reveal what effects would result from the newsystems adopted by the Act, particularly, the agenda coordination committeewithin the standing committee. With the launch of the agenda coordinationcommittee, the 19th National Assembly has witnessed opposition partycommittee members undertake the role of de facto gatekeeper — the role ofstanding committee chairperson, which nullifies the allocation of the chairpositions of the standing committees from the ruling and opposition parties. Toverify hypotheses drawn from theory, we analyzed the data on the durationand results with respect to the legislative process in the 18th and 19th NationalAssembly. The analysis of the duration of the legislative processes uncoversthe fact that a bill’s passage took longer in the 19th National Assembly. Theempirical data confirmed that the agenda coordination committee is responsiblefor the delay and less passage of bills.