This study examines decision-making in the process of governmental reorganization. Finding out who was involved in the governmental reorganization process, what choices were reasonable, and whether actors made reasonable decisions during the process w...
This study examines decision-making in the process of governmental reorganization. Finding out who was involved in the governmental reorganization process, what choices were reasonable, and whether actors made reasonable decisions during the process were the main goals of this study. Accordingly, I evaluated the political process of central governmental reorganization cases after democratization through comparative analysis with the perspectives of rational choice theory and rational choice institutionalism. By utilizing the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework (IAD Framework), one of the analysis tools of rational choice institutionalism, and using the asymmetric Nash bargaining solution, one of the bargaining problem solutions of cooperative game theory, the "Governmental Reorganization Negotiation Game Model (GRNG model)" was presented. Applying this model, the political process of central governmental reorganization cases is analyzed.
Studies of governmental reorganization took various perspectives. Many scholars in the field have paid attention to the perception and motivation of political actors in the process of governmental reorganization. On the other hand, some see governmental reorganization taking place in response to external environmental changes. Other scholars argue that government organizations carry out reorganizations that reflect social and institutional pressures to secure legitimacy. Active research also has been conducted on domestic cases where governmental reorganization is carried out whenever a new government is established. However, many studies simply describe or compare cases. A dimension of political confrontations, conflicts, negotiations, and compromises among actors in the process of governmental reorganization are relatively neglected.
To fill this gap, this study presented the GRNG model which modeled the negotiation and decision-making process in the process of governmental reorganization with the president (president-elect), the ruling party, and the opposition party as major actors. Then, I compared and analyzed historical cases applying the model. Cases of large-scale governmental reorganization by the administration of Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae Jung, Lee Myung Bak, and Park Geun Hye were selected for the analysis. In consideration of the characteristics of the cases and the purpose of the study, data such as minutes of the National Assembly and media reports were collected and examined.
The results are as follows. First, according to the model, the president (president-elect), the ruling party, and the opposition party choose either “negotiated” or “one-sided” type as "reasonable" actors. In addition, each actor's decisions vary depending on how much the ruling party reflects the president (president-elect)'s will when negotiating with the opposition party. The president (president-elect) and the ruling party will prefer the latter because the expected utility is greater in the “one-sided” type than the “negotiated” type. The opposition party will prefer the former because the expected utility is greater than the “one-sided” type in the “negotiated” type. Meanwhile, if the ruling party fully reflects the will of the president (president-elect) in negotiations with the opposition party, the utility of the president (president-elect) is the same as in the equilibrium, the utility of the ruling party increases, and the utility of the opposition party decreases. On the other hand, if the ruling party completely excludes the will of the president (president-elect) and proceeds with the negotiations with the opposition party, the utility of the ruling party is the same as in the equilibrium, the utility of the president (president-elect) increases and the utility of the opposition decreases. This means that from the opposition party's point of view, the utility can be increased when the ruling party insists on a properly coordinated reorganization rather than fully asserting the will of either the president (president-elect) or the ruling party. Moreover, it may be a reasonable choice for the president (president-elect) and the ruling party to follow the other's will rather than fully reflect their will in negotiations with the opposition party.
Second, in the selected cases, actors interact with each other as a governmental reorganization negotiation game under given conditions such as “biophysical conditions,” “attributes of community,” and “rules-in-use.” In the case of the Kim Young-sam administration, it is expected that it would be reasonable for the ruling party to choose the “negotiated” type, fully reflecting the president's will, and in fact, the ruling party revised the Government Organization Act through negotiations with the opposition party. In all the cases of the administrations of Kim Dae Jung, Lee Myung Bak, and Park Geun Hye, the ruling party found and practiced a way to maximize its utility under the “negotiated” type. In conclusion, the analysis of the cases presents that the actors in the governmental reorganization process tried to make rational decisions and actually did.
This study suggests the following theoretical implications. First, I highlighted political decision-making in the process of governmental reorganization, which governmental reorganization studies in South Korea have not dealt with. Second, I used the IAD Framework to systematically analyze the cases of governmental reorganization. Third, I attempted to introduce a game theory’s theoretical model for the analysis of the governmental reorganization processes. Next, the practical implications of this study are as follows. First, the game model of this study can be used to analyze and evaluate the process of governmental reorganization and other similar institutional transformations. The model will help stakeholders to establish strategies for maximizing their utility throughout the process. Second, the GRNG model can be used to explain not only to the interaction between the president and the National Assembly but also to the interaction among various actors.
Lastly, the limitations of this study and suggestions for the future research are as follows. First, the GRNG model has an inherent limitation as a game model. As game models are the simplified representations of interactions in the real world, the expectations derived from the models are inevitably slightly different from the real-life experiences. Second, there is a limitation in the quality of data as I relied on secondary data to analyze the selected cases. Third, due to the inability to measure the absolute size of the interaction factors among actors in the process of governmental reorganization, the validity of the research results are limited. Therefore, I suggest that the future studies focus on elaborating the game model more and investigating how to objectively and reasonably derive the pay-offs of the game. Furthermore, the appropriateness and validity of its usage can be enhanced by a more thorough examination of a single case and generalization could be explored by applying the game model to multiple cases.