This article empirically explores the understanding and changes in the concept of administrative capacity in the Korean context. Despite a universal consensus on its importance, administrative capacity is defined differently by regimes and stakeholders (i.e. in this study: the public, members of the National Assembly, and academia). To improve our understanding of administrative capacity, we collected three types of texts (337 academic papers, 1470 National Assembly minutes, and 3316 newspaper articles from 2000 to 2019) and analyzed the data using topic modeling and text-network analysis methods. The results suggest that although academic articles emphasized leadership, manpower, education, and other policymaking capacities, the National Assembly stressed innovation capacity in solving different policy problems. Finally, the media, assumed to reflect public opinion, emphasized capacities related to national security.

Points for practitioners

This study suggests that different types of administrative capacities could be needed according to the developmental stage of states. While managerial and administrative capacity should be developed in countries pursuing state-led economic development, governance capacity could be more requested in countries facing demands for democratization and meeting citizens’ various needs and participation.

中文翻译：

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韩国行政能力的变化：当代趋势和教训

本文从经验的角度探讨了韩国语境下对行政能力概念的理解和变化。尽管人们普遍认为行政管理的重要性，但行政能力的定义却由政权和利益相关者（即本研究：公众，国民议会成员和学术界）不同。为了增进对行政能力的理解，我们收集了三种类型的文本（2000年至2019年的337篇学术论文，1470份国会记录和3316份报纸文章），并使用主题建模和文本网络分析方法对数据进行了分析。结果表明，尽管学术文章强调领导，人力，教育和其他决策能力，但国民议会强调了解决各种政策问题的创新能力。最后，媒体

从业人员要点

这项研究表明，根据国家的发展阶段，可能需要不同类型的行政管理能力。虽然应在追求国家主导的经济发展的国家中发展管理和行政能力，但在面临民主化要求并满足公民的各种需求和参与的国家中，可能更需要治理能力。