The Mechanism of Distributing Special Grants in the Korean 19th National Assembly

Abstract

Abstract-Existing studies on special grants have depended on the material of 17th National Assembly, since the Ministry of the Interior has prohibited disclosure of special grants. Those studies fail to comprehend the dynamics during the process of allocating the special local tax, because they did not differentiate the ruling party from the opposing party. However, it is expected that there would be significant differences between the ruling party and the opposing party in terms of how they distribute special grants. Therefore, this study explores the differences using the material of 19th National Assembly. The finding revealed that the special local tax was distributed unequally between the ruling and opposition districts in 2015. There is a political implication of this study in pointing out that the special grant tax is a representative case showing that competition for re-election in 2015 is unfair.