150030 VO Political Institutions in Korea (2012S)

The course is aimed at analysing the policy process as embedded in a comprehensive legal
and institutional framework and providing students with the necessary knowledge and
analytical skills to conduct independent research in this field. The course highlights the dual
nature of the institutional framework in which politics and policies are made. On the one
hand, institutions structure the policy process. Decision-making does not take place within
a vacuum but is based on rules and procedures. Some of them even have the character of
constitutional rules and principles reflecting the core political and normative values and
principles upon which a society is based. On the other hand, the experience of day-to-day
decision-making becomes in itself a source of permanent adjustments and refinements of this framework. The practice of decision-making alters the use and meaning of core constitutional concepts. Effective decision-making requires awareness of this inter-relationship between politics, law and public policy. This course takes a comparative perspective and reviews political institutions across countries and different levels of governance. It studies core political institutions and the challenges related to their functioning in an increasingly independent environment at the national, European and global level. Moreover, a set of short case studies focusing in Korea will enable students to see the different institutional dynamics playing out in the context of specific policy episodes.