Reciprocity of Government Restructuring/ Policy Changes and the Convergent Environment in South Korea

Abstract

Whereas broadcasting, telecommunications and the information technology sectors were once distinct sectors with their own industry characteristics and legal frameworks, technological convergence has resulted in the merger of these sectors into one “broadband ecosystem.” Governments everywhere are confronting the need to effectively regulate this broadband ecosystem, which does not easily fit into the traditional models of regulation.This paper takes the approach that policy responses to environmental challenges are at least partially dependent on the structure of governmental decision-making bodies. How ministries and regulatory bodies are designed and put together affect both their policy outlooks and managerial capabilities, in turn affecting their policy output. It is thus important to study the structure of governmental decision-making bodies as they respond to technological convergence. But simultaneously, governments have also consciously restructured ministries and regulators in order to promote specific policy orientations, or in response to changes in the industry. This two-way interaction is thus critically important to the responses of governments to the emerging broadband ecosystem.As governments search for operational models of regulation in this new environment, South Korea offers a leading example. Due to the faster deployment of information infrastructures and technologies in South Korea since the 1980s, the country has also confronted the opportunities and challenges of technological convergence sooner than most nations. The government’s policy responses too have been held up as an example in the literature. Accordingly, this paper uses the case study of South Korea in order to analyze the transformation of government decision-making structures under the challenges of the emergence of the broadband ecosystem. Specifically, the paper will examine four different restructurings in the Korean government: the 1995 establishment of the Ministry of Information and Communication; the 2004 reforms that established the Ministry of Science and Technology as the lead ICT agency; the 2008 restructuring that among other things established the Korean Communication Commission, and the most recent 2013 reformations that created the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. The paper argues that in each case, the identification of a governmental agency as a nodal agency was the result of a new policy orientation, and the response to an environmental change.Though there is an extensive literature on Korean telecommunications, relatively few have examined government restructuring as a critical input into policy formation (see for example, Business Monitor International [BMI], 2014; Jung, Na, & Yoon, 2013; Larson & Park, 2014; Menon, 2011; Shin & Venkatesh, 2008; Wu, 2004). Of these, Larson and Park (2014) come closest to the purposes of this paper. However, they too examine the consequences of government restructuring on the telecommunications industry, and pay relatively less attention to the reverse relationship, namely the impact of industry changes on the structure of regulatory organizations. By examining the two-way relationship between the emergence of the broadband ecosystem and government restructuring, this paper will contribute to the literature. The paper will conclude with lessons for other countries from the South Korean example. Though no two countries are totally similar in terms of their industrial and political environments or policy needs, the paper is based on the premise that the example of South Korea has useful lessons for other countries, as a leading indicator of changes in government regulatory structures in response to convergence and the emergence of the broadband ecosystem.