Rediscovering Korea’s Local Bureaucracy: The Unsung Players in the Nation’s Democratization Process

Abstract

Korea is a highly centralized country where most administrative functions are carried out by the central government in Seoul. Increasingly, however, local governments have been given greater autonomy in their operations. This chapter examines how the ideal values of political decentralization have interacted with the country’s local bureaucracy, which inherently has dark side in itself. The focus is on how local government employees have contributed, or responded, to the democratic change of their communities, particularly since the 1980s. At the outset, the experiences of Korea’s decentralization and local autonomy are briefly reviewed. It is then examined how the bureaucrats have played in the process of democratization in terms of three features: bureaucratic power, scope, and culture. Institutionalizing competitive local bureaucracy contributed to reduce the disparity between capital regions (Seoul and its surrounded area) and noncapital regions (locals). Empowering local bureaucracy to allow own localized decision-making process was the first move of Korean governance.

Citation

Lee, S.-C. (2017), "Rediscovering Korea’s Local Bureaucracy: The Unsung Players in the Nation’s Democratization Process", The Experience of Democracy and Bureaucracy in South Korea (Public Policy and Governance, Vol. 28), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 53-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2053-769720170000028003