This study examines the Government-Standard Portrait System in South Korea as a form of cultural policy aimed at the visual management and coordination of public memory. While prior research has primarily addressed standard portraits through art-historical authentication or ethical debates, this study repositions the system as an institutionalized policy for managing visual memory under state authority. To this end, this study applies Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) to analyze the process through which the system was formed and transformed, focusing on the convergence of the problem, policy, and political streams, as well as the policy window. The analysis demonstrates that the system was rapidly institutionalized through the interaction of three conditions: the recognition of visual disorder caused by the loss of royal portraits during war and colonial rule, political circumstances emphasizing nation-building and the promotion of national culture, and the availability of a feasible policy alternative in the form of state-designated standard images. However, over time, changes in political and social contexts have led to a relaxation of mandatory review procedures and shifts in the operational structure, resulting in a gradual decline in the system’s effectiveness as a national standard. Based on these findings, this study highlights the limitations of assigning an exclusive national standard status to a single visual image and argues for a shift in visual public memory policy from a control-oriented approach to one centered on management and coordination. In doing so, the study confirms that the MSF provides a useful analytical tool for examining cultural policy cases in which symbols and images play a central role.
Jeong et al. (Wed,) studied this question.