The New Paradigm of Anti-corruption Policies in Korea: A Focus on the Lobbying Disclosure Act

Abstract

The prevalent corruption in Korea threatens the democratic development of Korea. Although the government of Korea has struggled to prevent the corruption phenomena, for various reasons their efforts were not very successful. One of the major causes of corruption in Korea is the weakness of ethics among public officials. In addition, currently there is no lobbying disclosure or prevention act in Korea despite the fact that widespread lobbying is an important factor of prevalent corruption phenomena. In this paper, the author argues that we need to build the new paradigm by stipulating lobbying disclosure act because of its use in controlling dealings of corruption in private or public sectors. In addition, the author suggests the new paradigm focusing on how to strengthen public ethics in Korea and how to maximize the control-mechanism of lobbying by establishing new system in the country. In short, in this paper, the author focuses on the realities of corruption phenomena, causes of corruption, measures of anti-corruption, and suggests lobbying disclosure or prevention acts in Korea.