An Analysis on the Trajectory of Social Dialogue in Korea : A Tentative Study based on Quantitative Analysis

Under the so-called ‘1987 labor regime’ in Korea, a series of efforts have been made to solve the structural problems of the new labor regime through social dialogue. I analysed the fluctuations of social dialogue in terms of the institutionalization, activation and performance for the past 30 years, the relations between those three levels of social dialogue, and investigated the deterrents of social dialogue. The institutionalization level continued to rise from a very low level to its peak in 2007 and kept on the level till 2017. The activation level continued upward until 2009 and downward afterwards. The performance level was low until 1995, but has been fluctuated very much since 1996. The ‘counter-implementation’, a kind of severe non-compliance done by government has a considerable negative influence on both activation and performance of social dialogue. Ordinary suspension/withdrawal from social dialogue as a tactic used by labor unions has little effect on the activation or performance of social dialogue.