An Analysis of Korean Legislative Development in Relation with Economic Growth

Abstract

Ⅰ. Background and Purposes □ This is one part of a research series which aims to analyze the development process of legislation in various areas in relation to the economic growth in Korea, and make suggestions for legislative development in developing and transition countries. □ The analysis and evaluation of the development process of Korea's agricultural laws may provide implications to developing countries where agriculture is the main industry or where a high portion of population is engaged in agricultural industry as they go through the process of industrialization and open to the global market.

Ⅱ. Main Contents □ Chapter 2 will survey the process of Korea's economic growth and the changes to agricultural industry. ○ Generally in the West, accumulated agricultural surplus provided the financial support for industrialization and economic expansion, while Japan achieved industrialization and modernization of agriculture at the same time. However, Korea displayed a unique pattern where agriculture served as the main industry until right after the Korean War, but agricultural surplus was accumulated only after modernization of agriculture after industralization. ○ The portion which agriculture takes in Korean economy has been steeply decreasing and was expected to continue to decrease. However, in the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in understanding agriculture which started to fuse with other industries and technologies, and this shift may bring a change in the definition of agriculture. □ Chapter 3 divides and characterizes each period according to the changes to agricultural industry in relation to economic development in Korea, and introduces the a few laws that reflects the policy and the economic situation of each period. □ Chapter 4 evaluates the agricultural laws of each period by analyzing the achievements and weaknesses of the laws. □ Chapter 5 suggests implications on the ownership and conservation of farm land and on food security for developing countries based on Korean agricultural laws as evaluated in Chapter 4.

Ⅲ. Expected Effects □ The development process of Korean agricultural legislation which is analyzed in chronological steps is expected to provide implications on what must be considered at each economic stage from Korean experience.