Analysis of the enactment process of the Act On Guarantee Of Status and Rights for Artists through Multiple Streams Model

This study aims to analyze the legislative process of the Act on the Protection of the Status and Rights of Artists (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’), enacted in 2021, to derive policy implications for protecting and strengthening the rights of artists. To this end, Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Model was applied to systematically examine the stream of problem, politics and policy that influenced the enactment of the law. The Blacklisted cases of 2017 and the #MeToo movement of 2018 shaped the stream of problem, while the inauguration of the Moon Jae-in administration and the verdict in major cases strengthened the political stream. In the policy stream, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism collaborated with and artist’s community to form a legislative task force and propose concrete alternatives. Although the ruling party proposed a bill in the 20th National Assembly, it failed to be enacted due to opposition from the opposition parties. Following the inauguration of the 21st National Assembly in 2020, the political process accelerated as the ruling party secured a majority, and a policy window opened with the opposition’s proposal of a bill on art ethics centers. This study confirms that political change and the active participation of artists as policy entrepreneur were critical in driving the legislation. In particular, artists played the role of advocacy by utilizing ‘affect priming’ and framing strategies, and secured strong legislative momentum. As the first qualitative research on the Act, this study provides valuable policy implications for future protection and strengthening of artists’ rights.