LOCAL AUTONOMY IN KOREA

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Korea has a unitary governmental system in which all the local public authorities are created by and subordinate to the central government. The local public authorities possess only a narrow span of discretionary powers given to them by the central government. Almost all powers of this country are exclusively concentrated in the central government. Indeed, Gregory Henderson aptly characterized Korean politics as the politics of the "vortex tending to sweep all active elements of the society upward toward central power"(I968:5).
It has been generally found that the overcentralized political administrative system tends to: shift vast resources to the centre from the periphery; increase coordination and managerial costs; design projects and programs which poorly fit local needs, wants, and conditions; reduce flexibility, adaptability, creativity, and speed in field services; discourage learning and innovation; perpetuate and even worsen practices of patron-clientile and severe asymmetries in power, wealth, and status between the centre and the periphery; aggravate the weakness of local authorities; and discourage residents' participation in the development process(Chambers,1985; Cheerna & Rondinelli, 1983;Wunsch, 1986).
In recent years, a propitious movement to restore local autonomy has arisen in Korea. Most local assemblymen and not a few local public officials have expressed indignation at the stringent state control of local affairs. Many local dwellers also have come to understand the significance of local solutions to local problems and the urgent requirement of decentralization reforms.
This paper begins with the brief history of the local autonomy in Korea, describes its present structure and centralized facets, and finally discusses the necessity of local autonomy innovation in the emergent information society.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. Introduction 1
• Ⅱ. Brief History 2
• Ⅲ. The Structure & The Centralized Facets of Local Public Authorities 6
• 1. The Structure of Local Public Authorities 6
• 2. The Facets of Centralization 7
• 1) Hierarchy of Central Control 7
• 2) Proportion of Local Public Personnel 8
• 3) Transferring of Local Public Personnel 8
• 4) Local Public Expenditure 9
• 5) Sharing of Local Taxes 9
• 6) Revenue-Raising Power of Local Public Authorities 9
• 7) Functions of Local Public Authorities 10
• 8) Communication and Supervising Methods 10
• Ⅳ. Information Society & Local Autonomy 10