This study analyzes the policy adoption behavior of Korean local governments using the Ordinance for Revitalization of Bicycle Usage as an example. More specifically, the paper is to answer the following question. What are the causal conditions of policy adoption in Korean local governments? Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), the configurations of policy determinants could be found out. For the analysis, pooled time series data are generated by updating and combining the existent data sets between 2003 and 2012. Based on the data set, this study employs both fuzzy set and fuzzy set ideal type analysis in QCA to compare complex causal conditions and categorize the types of policy characteristics.The analytical results show that the causal combinations of the policy adoption are as follows: the policy adoption is affected by political factors and categorized with mainly conservative type. The results show the various configurative explanations for policy adoption by systematic comparisons in Korean local governments.
□ Key Words: policy adoption, policy determinants, Korean Local Government, Qualitative
Comparative Analysis (QCA), fuzzy set analysis, fuzzy set ideal type.