Political culture and legislative gridlock - Politics of economic reform in precrisis Korea

This article argues that political gridlock in Korea was responsible for th e defeat of many economic reform efforts before the economic crisis. Succes sful and timely economic reforms would have made the Korean economy less vu lnerable to the economic crisis. The persistence of political gridlock can be attributed to the immature or unconsolidated nature of Korean democracy, including weak democratic institutions and traditional political values an d practices. With a model of policy gridlock in the context of the Korean d ecision-making process, the article attempts to link Korean political cultu re and institutions to the occurrence of policy gridlock.