• Informatization Policy
• /
• v.28 no.3
• /
• pp.73-94
• /
• 2021

This study aimed to analyze the minutes of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, one of the standing committees of the Korean National Assembly, by applying the WORDFISH algorithm of automated text analysis to estimate the pattern of changes in the ideological orientation of the members of Korea's political elite. The results of the analysis showed that the Legislation and Judiciary Committee generally undergoes changes in ideological orientation around the time of a major administrative change, especially during the period preceding a change up to the time of its implementation. Compared with the United States, where changes in the ideological orientation of the political elite occur simultaneously based on parties, changes in that of the political elite at the Korean National Assembly tend to occur in response to a certain transitional point in time or a change in the ruling government. What is especially noteworthy in terms of the ideological orientation reflected in the minutes of the Legislative Judiciary Committee is that the microscopic effect tends to disappear when the macroscopic effect occurs and, conversely, that the microscopic effect emerges once the macroscopic effect has disappeared. In other words, changes in the ideological orientation of the political elite appear to indicate the effect of a particular legislator's individual characteristics when no effect is observed during a given term or year of the National Assembly, whereas they revealed the effect of a given time itself when no effects related with the individual characteristics of a legislator are discerned.