South Korea

Abstract

The Republic of Korea, known as one of the poorest countries in the world in the 1960s, struggled with military coups, economic crisis, and scarcity due to labor strikes. However, the country became one of the most rapidly industrializing and modernizing countries in the world for last 30 years. This was a long journey to political democratization, economic development, and administrative enhancement. This Korean miracle cannot be understood only by its economic performance, but also by the power and transformation of its public administration. As an effective and robust bureaucracy, public administration steered local autonomy, economy, markets, and civil society decisively despite the unbalanced and immature social, political, and economic conditions. It also intends to explain about main actors and elements about the post-democratization period, the administrative systems, central and local governments, non-profit sectors, the public personnel system, and the administrative reforms and social difficulties which modified public policies and public administration. This explanation shows government shifts from a dominant power with traditional methods to multi-actor partnerships with the combination of old and modern methods in compound network governance.

1 Introduction

South Korea, which is formally called the “Republic of Korea,” was established at the end of World War II like many other countries in the new international world order. Korea was liberated from the Japanese empire, which was one of the Axis powers, in 1945. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule for 36 years from 1910 to 1945. Chosun was the only country, which ruled the Korean peninsula for 518 years from 1392 when Sungkye Lee, King Taejo, governed the Lee dynasty. Soon after the liberation, the US and the USSR divided and ruled for 3 years as a trusteeship. In this arrangement, the USSR established the northern part of the peninsula as a satellite state and only the southern part could form a government under UN recognition in 1948. North Korea commenced hostilities against the South in 1950, which signaled the beginning of the Korean War. North Korea, which was supported by the Soviet Union and China, and South Korea supported by the UN waged a tragic war for three years until 1953. At that time 16 allied countries, including the US, engaged in the war to support South Korea.

In 1948, Korea’s GDP Per Capita was US $50, which is the lowest rate in the world, and the illiteracy rate was approximately 80% (Choi, 2018: para.1). As a result, this devastating Korean War made the situation worse. General Douglas MacArthur said it would take more than 100 years for Korea to rehabilitate from the shattered post-war economy. However, it didn’t take that long for Korea to rebuild the country. According to CEIC (2018), the per capita GDP of South Korea reached US $29,743.50 in December 2017. And South Korea would be the 7th richest country in the world in terms of GNI in 2020 (Korea IT Times, 2021). Now this country is a paragon of development administration in the world.

South Korea has a homogeneous population sharing a common ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage. It is governed by a presidential system including an independent chief executive. Due to the politico-economic location surrounding China, Japan, Russia, and the United States, South Korea has been influenced by these four strong countries in the world (Önder & Ulaşan, 2016).

In South Korea there are various religions such as Shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christianity, but Christianity only started to become the most influential religion in the last century. Catholics and Protestants began missionary work in Korea respectively in 1784 and in 1884 and within a short period increased significantly (Önder & Ulaşan, 2016: 34). Although, in 1900, Korea only had a 1% Christian population, South Korea’s population in 2010 consisted of citizens who do not believe in any religion (46%), those who believe in Christianity (29%), and those who believe in Buddhism (23%), according to Pew Research Center (Connor, 2014).

2 Administrative History

Although Korea has a long historical background (starting from approximately 2,300 BC), modern public administration of Korea is based on the traditional system, the Japanese colonial system, and Western disciplines such as American administrative values. Therefore, these kinds of strands or combination are reflected in the Korean administrative system.

2.1 Roots and Development of Administrative Tradition and Administrative Culture

The Korean public administration, which was highly influenced by traditional Confucian values and the Japanese colonial administrative custom, began to introduce American values soon after Korea was liberalized in 1945. A law-oriented German tradition was used in Korea by Japan before 1945. Since then, management-oriented American public administration extensively has influenced in the process of the improvement of Korean public administration. Because of this reason, Korean public administration can be termed as both a hybrid and a unique system (Önder & Ulaşan, 2016).

Starting from Korean independence in 1945, the Korean administrative culture could be divided into four categories: Confucian culture, developmental state culture, democratic culture, and other recent diversions of administrational values such as New Public Administration, New Governance, and New Public Service.

2.2 Historical Development of Korean Public Administration

Based on a combination of traditional Confucian values and modern western values, Korean public administration has made a hybrid and unique system. The history of Korean public administration could be categorized into 4 stages:

• a. The public administration stage before the Republic of Korea (prior to 1948): The Chosun dynasty was the absolute power and ruled the country from 1392. The dynasty kept a highly centralized unitary administration system. The king sometimes shared power with several of the noble clans which did not get along with each other and have different opinions. These clans worked as political parties. Although the king appointed governors to districts and regions, they sometimes failed to perform their duties efficiently. The reason was that landowners and elites in those local areas had their own hegemony on their turf. Chosun was colonized by Japan in the early twentieth century (1910–1945). Japan ruled Korea with a more centralized administration system and laid the foundation of modern administrative bureaucracy. But this system was flawed and ultimately helped Japan exploit Korea mercilessly. After World War II finished, Korea was liberated. However, the varied ideologies made the public fragile and the US occupied Korea for three years right after Korean liberation in 1945. The US military government did not change the administrative system Japan created (Rho & Lee, 2010: 330–331).

• b. The nation-building stage (1948–1961): On August 15, 1948, the Republic of Korea was formally established and the first constitution of the republic was promulgated on July 17, 1948. The constitution adopted a presidential system combined with a parliamentary system. For instance, the president acted as the head of state and was elected indirectly by the National Assembly. The Japanese colonial legacy and the outbreak the Korean War, the division of Korea, and social chaos affected the Korean administrative system in this period. Dr. Syngman Rhee was the first and the only president of the First Republic (1948–1960). Dr. Syngman Rhee kept anti-communist policies, tried to stop ideological conflicts, and restricted freedom in the state. However, due to the authoritarian governing style and long-term rule, enormous antigovernment demonstrations (April revolution) occurred and president Syngman Rhee had to resign in 1960. After that, the general election was held and Bosun Yun came to power as the president and Myon Jang (1960–1961 as the Jang administration) as the head of the cabinet (the prime minister). This interim government was called the Second Republic and took the power in 1960 with the support of the public and revised the constitution to create a parliamentary system with lower and upper houses in the National Assembly. However, this parliamentary government was dissolved by the military coup in 1961. Hence, there were not many changes in government system and procedure (Choi, 2018).

• c. The Modern bureaucratic state and industrialization stage (1961–1987): On May 16, 1961, social instability of the Second Republic caused the military coup by General Chung-Hee Park (1961–1979). The military revolutionary committee took power and announced six aims it wanted to achieve. These aims were anti-communism, abiding by the US charter, good relations with the US and other independent countries, an anti-corruption movement, and achieving national unification. The military created the Democratic Republican Party and won the elections. The Third Republic revised the constitution to establish a robust presidential government system and a unicameral national assembly system. A new constitution was accepted in a national referendum and came into effect in December 1963. One year later General Chung-Hee Park left his duty in the military and was elected as the president of South Korea. South Korea turned into the development state and focused on the modernization of the state. So government claimed the neo-mercantilist industrialization policy, and the policy focus of the government was state-led economic development with strong interventionism, protectionism, and nationalism (Kim, 2006; Rho & Lee, 2010).

  Government institutions as a modernizing agent played a vital role in progress and growth. The world average growth rate was 4.8% between 1961 and 1979 and the annual average economic growth rate during the Park administration (1961–1979) was 9.5% which was much higher than other countries’ annual average economic growth rates (Choi, 2018). However, democracy, local governance, and local autonomy were neglected and the administrative system turned out to be more centralized. The bureaucracy became more autonomous from the parliament and the bureaucracy was able to plan and implement the development policy (Rho & Lee, 2010).

  In 1972, the constitution was amended and was called the Yusin (revitalizing reforms). Thus, the Fourth Republic was established. Korea changed the process of direct election of the president to indirect election by the National Conference for Unification, which was created for presidential elections. The constitution allowed Chung-Hee Park to remain in office indefinitely through indirect elections. The autocracy and dissatisfaction affected the administration severely; president Park was assassinated on October 26, 1979 (Rho & Lee, 2010). Under the Chung-Hee Park administration, South Korea rapidly developed economically. At that time, the state was called as an administrative state because his government highly influenced the public and private sector (Choi, 2018).

  Minister Kyu-Hah Choi (1979–1981) was elected president by the National Conference for Unification (an electoral college of the Yusin system) after the assassination of Chung-Hee Park. Under the leadership of General Doo-Hwan Chun, a military coup took place again on December 12, 1979. Kyu-Hah Choi resigned from the presidency on August 16, 1980. After Chun Doo-Hwan was elected president by the Electoral College on August 27, he amended the constitution, which permitted presidents to be elected for a single seven-year term. The Korean government allowed political parties to work on December 1980 and the martial law was lifted in 1981. National Assembly elections and a presidential election took place in February 1981. On March 3, 1981, Doo-Hwan Chun (1981–1988) inaugurated his 7-year presidency under the new constitution and the Fifth Republic began.

• d. The Debureaucratized democratic stage (1988–present): As of June 1987, democratization process in South Korea went one step further. The June Uprising in Seoul spread all over the country and the public strongly protested against the authoritarian regime. This intense protest and demonstration movement lasted from June 10 to June 29, 1987. The main purpose of the protest was to regain direct presidential elections. The head of the ruling party, Tae-Woo Roh finally promised to declare direct presidential election and other democratic reforms. The declaration includes (1) direct presidential elections, (2) revisions in the election law, (3) political amnesty for dissidents and restoration of civil rights, (4) a constitution promoting all basic rights, (5) laws improving the press freedom, (6) local autonomy, (7) encouraging dialog for political stability, and (8) courageous social reforms to create a clean society (Lumsdaine, 2009: 194).

In 1987, the Sixth Republic was established and the constitution was revised. The constitution came into effect on February 25, 1988, when Tae-Woo Roh (1988–1993) was inaugurated as the president. The constitution was amended for the first direct election of the president for a single five-year term. The administration revitalized local autonomy and introduced the ombudsman system as well. Kim Young-Sam (1993–1998) was the 14th president and was the first civilian president elected since 1961. The administration restored the local autonomy suspended after the 1961 military coup. Due to the worldwide economic crisis, the economy of Korea was severely damaged as well during this time and Korea had to receive a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In this dismal situation, the presidential election took place on December 18, 1997, and the first peaceful and democratic power shift (from the ruling party to an opposition party) in Korean history occurred. Dae-Jung Kim (1998–2003) took presidential office on February 1998. He carried out many reforms in and out of government to overcome the financial crisis based on New Public Management (Rho & Lee, 2010: 336–337).

In 2002, the presidential election took place, Moo-Hyun Roh (2003–2008) won and took office the following year. Opening the populist government, he announced three political aims: a society of “balanced development,” an epoch of peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia, and democracy with the people (Kihl, 2005: 52). He attempted to carry out many reforms on the basis of democracy and equality. But he could not achieve his goals mainly because main stream elites were not willing to support him (Rho & Lee, 2010: 338). However, there were some big achievements in his administration. He made some progress on curing the economic disparity between metropolitan and rural areas, and carried out decentralization policies which delegated more rights to the local governments from the central government, and gave more opportunities to citizens to participate in the policy-making process.

Myung-Bak Lee (2008–2013) became the 17th president in 2008. The Myung-Bak Lee’s administration carried out huge market friendly deregulatory policies and promoted green investment. Compared with Moo-Hyun Roh’s administration, the Lee administration’s policy-making process was much closer to state bureaucracy. The state bureaucracy made the Lee administration highly efficient but weak regarding citizen participation (Yun & Lee, 2011: 313–314).

The 18th presidential election took place on 19 December 2012 and Geun-Hye Park (2013–2017) was elected. On 25 February 2013, she became the first female president in South Korean history. Geun-Hye Park’s father was Chung Hee Park who ruled the country with an iron fist for 18 years (1961–1979). Geun-Hye Park’s administration promised to embrace a pragmatic pro-business and growth-oriented agenda. This included the restriction of the power of mighty business conglomerates (chaebols), the advancement of women’s status, and the dialog with North Korea under the condition of “trustpolitik.¹” Geun-Hye Park’s administration supported centralization, took the full power of the Executive and the political system, and became more hierarchical. South Korea reached enormous economic growth in cross-OECD comparison. In 2015, South Korea reached an annual GDP growth rate of 2.6%, which was higher than the OECD average annual GDP growth rate of 2.1%. But the bitterness in 2014 that started with the Sewol ferry tragedy² turned into massive protests for the impeachment of Geun-Hye Park in 2016 due to the allegations of corruption, abuse of power, and an influence pending scandal. Therefore, the majority of the parliament decided to impeach Geun-Hye Park. The Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment in a unanimous 8-0 decision on 10 March 2017 and Geun-Hye Park was removed from office. Due to the sudden resignation of the 18th president, Democratic Party candidate Jae-In Moon was elected as the 19th president of South Korea by snap election (Kalinowski et al., 2017). His administration tried to succeed the 16th president Roh’s political legacy to strengthen decentralization and balance unequal growth between metropolitan and rural areas. For the foreign policy, his administration tries to strengthen ties with North Korea and China rather than the US. Especially, the real estate policy almost endangered the Korean economy during his term.

During the debureaucratized democratic stage from 1988 to 2017, one of the big policy achievements was the rate of the economic development. In the first year of the democratization stage (1988), the per capita GDP of South Korea was US $4,813. The per capita GDP of South Korea reached US $29,743.50 in December 2017. Also, the methods and functions of this public administration stage have been separated from other stages’ methods and functions. Compared with old stages, the national parliament and political parties have become stronger and the media, non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, labor unions, interest and community groups have become more influential on the government and society over time. Especially, since the late 1990s, as theories of new governance have come out and garnered increasing attention in the academic world, the importance of stakeholders and civil organizations has increased (Choi, 2018).

3 Central Government

Korea has been considered a major example of majoritarian presidentialism (Lijphart, 2012: 122). South Korea has a unitary and centralized government system. Unicameralism is a parliamentary system and the president serves as the head of state and the executive branch. Legislative power is used by the National Assembly (the constitution of South Korea, 1987: article 40). Korea adopted the idea of separation of the judiciary from the legislature and the executive. There is a system of checks and balances between three branches. In addition, if the Assembly passes a law about impeachment, that law can be sent to the judiciary branch for re-examination (the constitution of South Korea, 1987: article 111).

3.1 Executive Branch

The Korean president is the head of the executive branch (the constitution of South Korea, 1987: article 66). The government of South Korea has a prime minister instead of a vice president. According to article 86 in the constitution, the Korean president selects the prime minister with the consent of the National Assembly. The prime minister acts as the principal executive assistant to the president, superintends the administrative ministries, directs the executive ministers under the order of the president, and is in charge of the Office for Government Policy Coordination under the authority of the president.

The president is elected by a direct popular vote of citizens for only a single 5-year term without the possibility of reelection (the constitution of South Korea, 1987: article 70). The president is formally the chairman of the State Council (cabinet) which deals with main national policies within the power of the executive (the constitution of South Korea, 1987: article 88), the vice chairman is the prime minister and the members of the State Council are chosen by South Korea’s president on the advice of the prime minister (the constitution of South Korea, 1987: article 87/1). The State Council consists of the president, the prime minister, and other members whose should number 15 to 30.

The executive branch is composed of the president, state council, and the prime minister. But the president has agencies which function under the direction of the president. These agencies include the National Intelligence Service, the Board of Audit and Inspection, and the Communication Commission. The president chooses the heads of these organizations with the consent of the National Assembly. The financial accounts of local and central government agencies, associated organizations, and government corporations are audited by the Board of Audit and Inspection. Also the Board of Audit and Inspection has the power to examine abuses of the public authority and misconducts of the public officials in their duties. The reports are given to the president and the National Assembly. The National Intelligence Service is in charge of collecting, examining, and analyzing external or internal information on the threats about criminal activities (Rho & Lee, 2010: 338). Overall structure is exposed in Fig. 1 (Choi et al., 2012: 110).

Fig. 1

(Source http://english1.president.go.kr/President/Administration [February 2, 2021])

Executive branch of the Korean government in 2021

3.2 Legislative Branch

The national assembly has authority to make laws. As of 2021, the national assembly is composed of 300 members, 246 members elected by the people in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote and 54 members elected proportionally by the parties. The ballot is considered direct, secret, equal, and universal (the constitution of South Korea, 1987: article. 41). In Korea, even though all bills should be approved by the national assembly, the executive branch and the members in the National Assembly have the right to introduce bills.

3.3 Judicial Branch

In South Korea, the judiciary contains three-tier structures that are the Supreme, High, and District Courts, and also has a specialized family and administrative court. The highest judiciary power is known as the Supreme Court and the president appoints its chief judge with the consent of the national assembly. In addition, the Supreme Court consists of 13 judges and a chief judge. The president appoints other judges upon the advice of the chief judge with the approval of the national assembly.

Also, there is the Constitutional Court that checks issues of constitutionality upon the request of the courts, the closure of a political party, impeachment cases and etc. (the constitution of South Korea, 1987: article 111). For example, due to her role in an influence-peddling scandal and corruption, the national assembly impeached the first female president Geun-Hye Park and the Constitutional Court agreed with the decision.

In the Constitutional Court, a court head and eight judges are appointed by the president and they have to be qualified to be court judges (3 justices are nominated by the president, 3 justices are nominated by the National Assembly, and 3 justices are nominated by the Supreme Court chief judge). The court chief is appointed by the president from among judges by the approval of the national assembly (the constitution, 1987: article 111–112). All judges serve until retirement at age 70.

3.3.1 Scope of Central Administration

The central government grants administrative power to local governments to a certain extent. Governmental power in South Korea is far-reaching. Laws allow the central government to oversee and control the local governments through various executive regulations. Even though the local governments have the right to levy local taxes, the central government controls local spending and taxing. The Korean central government has various formal and informal ways to check local verdicts (Park, 2006).

3.3.2 Administrative Position of Head of State

The president implements laws enacted by the legislature and issues executive orders to implement the laws. The president can direct the State Council totally and supervise advisory organizations and executive agencies. Article 72 of the constitution allows the president to put major policies concerning diplomacy, the protection of the country, unification, and other issues concerning national destiny. The president has rights to introduce executive orders relating to agendas given to the president by Act and issues essential to implement Acts (the constitution, 1987: article 75). The president has a right to veto bills of National assembly but the president has to explain the reason of the objection in a written way. The National Assembly has the power to override the veto with a two-thirds majority (the constitution of South Korea, 1987: article 53).

3.3.3 Ministries and Independent Agencies

The president generally fulfills the executive duties by means of the State Council which consists of fifteen to thirty members including ministers and the Mayor of Seoul city. Ministers are designated by the president on the advice of the prime minister. The ministries are in charge of the formulation and execution of government policies in their respective policy areas. Ministers lead and supervise the executive ministries under their administration, deliberate on crucial national affairs in their respective policy areas, act on the president’s behalf, and issue ministry orders as delegated by presidential orders (Kim, 2018). A National Assembly member can be chosen as a minister.

Ministers do not have their own political base and rely completely on the support of the president. The president selects and dismisses ministers, and has a right to reorganize the State Council. The standard term of a minister has constantly declined over the past two decades. Under Myung-Bak Lee’s administration, this standard period of service was approximately one year. This high degree of turnover restricts ministers’ independence (Croissant et al., 2016: 39).

In Korea, independent agencies and administrations have limited activities which are comparatively narrow and certain. Every agency (or administration) is generally headed by a vice ministerial-level administrator.³ In addition, the president appoints the agency (or administration) on the advice of the prime minister. The agency (or administration) works with specific ministries and with the prime minister. The affiliated ministers supervise the agency (or administration) (Kim, 2018).

3.3.4 Local Agencies of Central Government

The foundation and functional range of central administrative organizations is based on the Government Organization Act on July 17, 1948. The central administrative organizations contain ministries and agencies/administrations, special local administrative agencies, affiliated institutes, and representative administrative agencies (committees). The number of ministries and agencies/administrations is around 40. Every ministry and agency/administration might have special local administrative agencies under its authority, if needed. Special local administrative agencies provide particular public services in a specific area. There are around 5,000 special local administrative agencies: 40 for employment and labor service, 190 for tax service, 2,600 for public security, 1,900 for postal service, and 300 for other services. Also, central government organizations might set up their affiliated institutes, which include test institutes, medical institutes, cultural institutes, education and training institutes, consultative bodies, research institutes, or factories. There are about 480 affiliated institutes containing 80 organizations for testing and research institutes, 40 for education and training, 50 for culture, 10 for medicine, and 300 others. Both special local administrative agencies and affiliated institutes are considered subordinate institutes. For instance, the Ministry of Employment and Labor has the National Labor Relations Commission, Korea Employment Information Service, and Korea Employment Promotion Agency for the Disabled as its affiliated institutes, as well as six special local administrative agencies (Regional Employment and Labor Administration) and their local offices (40 district offices and 1 branch office). Due to the necessity which is that functions or responsibilities should be fulfilled independently, representative administrative agencies, such as an administrative committee, can be set up under the authority of the president, prime minister, or central government organizations. The representative administrative agencies try to coordinate interests relating to important policies competently, to systematically look for an agreement in the course of consultation, and carry out administration democratically and proficiently by controlling fairly, suitably, and properly (Kim, 2018).

4 Local Governments

The local governments in South Korea have similar features to the national government. The local assemblies are generally derived from a parliamentary system and the electoral district is derived from administrative districts. Historically, the central government appointed the heads of local governments and local governments performed their functions as a continuity of the central government.

Soon after World War II, the modern history of local self-government began when Korea created its own constitution in 1948. The constitution has 2 articles about local autonomy (article 96 and 97). Article 96 basically recognized local self-government and gave local governments autonomy over their own properties and financial affairs. Also, the local governments managed matters within local autonomy and are assigned by the central government (Cho et al., 2010: 379).

However, the article also said that the local governments had to comply with laws and ordinances by national executive orders and legislation. In addition, article 97 stated that local autonomous entities have to possess assemblies; these assemblies’ power, structure, and elections are determined by law. The function and organization of local autonomous entities were also determined by law. Based on these articles, the Local Autonomy Act was enacted in 1949. The act stated that the local government system had 2 levels which are upper-level local governments as Seoul metropolitan city and several provinces and lower-level local governments as city, county, township, and town (Yoo & Lee, 2020).

Until the 1961 military coup, this act was changed five times on the basis of political, social, and financial dynamics. Also, the implementation of the act was postponed in the Korean War. The first local election was held for lower- and upper-level council members without a local self-government system in 1952 and president Syng-Man Rhee won by using changes of the Local Autonomy Act and the election for his own interest. In 1960, the student revolution occurred against the Rhee government and the Democratic Party took power. The Democratic Party changed the Local Autonomy Act again on November 1, 1960 and local elections took place in December 1960. Executive heads of lower-level and upper-level governments and local councils were elected by popular vote (Cho et al., 2010: 379–380).

In 1961, Chung-Hee Park carried out a successful military coup and governed the country under authoritarian rules. Thus, local elections were canceled and the military regime deferred the functions of local autonomy. The local autonomy was deferred until the Tae-Woo Roh administration (1988–1993) disbanded the provision preventing local councils and local council members were elected in 1991. Due to the demands from the public, the Kim Young-Sam administration (1993–1998) executed some revisions on the Local Autonomy Act in March 1994. Relatively comprehensive local autonomy through inclusive local elections (executive heads and local council members of local governments) occurred in 1995 during the Kim Young-Sam administration. Since then, local elections have been held every 4 years. Nevertheless, major functions which had been in the hands of local government, such as policing and education, have been utterly controlled by the central government. Also, the central government has regulated some functions of mayors and governors in organizing the executive bodies of mayors and governors (Cho et al., 2010). Since 1995, much progress was achieved in the area of local autonomy, specifically the Geun-Hye Park administration launched the Task Force on Finding Unreasonable Regulation in each local government to ease regulatory burdens on local business and many reforms were achieved (OECD-regulatory policy, 2017b: 73).

Until 2017, the Local Autonomy Act has also been amended 59 times including 2 total amendments, 35 partial amendments, and 22 related act amendments, and even today is still in the forefront of discussion. These frequent amendments to the Local Autonomy Act were not mostly made by the needs of the local residents, but rather they were made for the various political purposes of the parties in power and the central government. Thus, local autonomy was distorted as a policy instrument to strengthen the centralization of the government rather than to decentralize power (Yoo & Lee, 2020).

5 Scope of Local Governments

The Local Autonomy Act grants comprehensive rights to the local governments about autonomy. The Act (article 9) also pointed out functions in six groups to be used by Korean local governments:

• Functions pertaining to the jurisdiction, managerial, and administrative managements of local governments.

• Functions to uphold the general well-being of citizens.

• Functions pertaining to the promotion of industries such as: farming, forestry, trade, and business.

• Functions pertaining to local growth and the establishment and organization of environmental services.

• Functions to uphold culture, education, sports education, and art.

• Functions pertaining to civil defense and local firefighting.

Although rights are given to local governments, in reality they are restricted. At present, plentiful laws indicate the above functions as rights of the central government. According to the internal data of the Presidential Commission for Decentralization in 2009, there were 42,320 governmental functions. Among those, the central government still took the rights on the final decision for over 71.4% (29,980 functions) of them, while local governments are responsible for below 27.9% (11,817 functions) and functions given to local governments from the central government comprise 3.6% (1,523 functions) (Choi et al., 2012: 29–30).

6 Local Administrative Units

6.1 Administrative Structure of Local Governments

Within the autonomy levels, there are the metropolitan and local areas. There are cities, provinces, counties, and other administrative units such as towns (Eup), townships (Myun), and neighborhood associations (Dong), which are created by the central government only for the purpose of public service delivery (Fig. 2). The upper level of autonomy consists of a special city like Seoul, a metropolitan city where several million of the population live, and a province which includes cities and rural areas. In addition, the minimum population based on local levels is different (metropolitan city 1,165,000, province 1,550,000, city 43,000, gun 10,000, as of 2018) (Yoo & Lee, 2020).

Fig. 2

(Source Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Statistical Yearbook, 2019; Yoo & Lee, 2020)

Hierarchical Structure of the Central and Local Government (as of 2018)

According to the Local Autonomy Act (2017), local governments^4,5 are divided into two categories:

• 1. Special metropolitan city, metropolitan city, autonomous metropolitan city, province, and special self-governing province (special autonomous province) as the upper level;

• 2. Si (city), gun (county), and gu (district) as the lower level. Lower-level local autonomies/governments (municipal governments) also have subordinate administrative organizations (eups (towns), dongs (neighborhoods), and myeons (townships)) as the community level.

Most local authorities do not have economic autonomy and depend on fiscal transfers that come from the central government. The amount of fiscal autonomy is depicted by the rate between the local budget and local tax income with the gap paid via central government subsidies. The degree of financial autonomy is between 80% in Seoul and 11.6% as an average for counties (guns)’ governments and the overall average is about 45% (OECD, 2017a: 116).

6.2 Organizations of Local Authorities

With regard to the local government organizations, there are local councils as the legislative organization and the executive organization, where the head of the local government⁶ structure is situated. Citizens select all the members of local councils who work for a four-year period by direct and secret vote. A local council’s duty is to represent residents in local government and it is responsible for ordinances. 1 chairperson and 2 vice-chairpersons are chosen by a secret vote by a local council for a city or do (province), and one chairperson and one vice-chairperson for si (city)/gun (county)/autonomous gu (district). They are selected from among the members of the local council. The chairperson and vice-chairpersons serve for two years. The chairperson is to represent the local council, organize proceedings, keep the council chamber under control, and oversee the affairs of the local council (Local Autonomy Act, 2017: article 48–49).

6.3 Finance of Local Governments

In 2018, the average level of financial self-sufficiency of local governments was only 53.4% and the average rate of local revenue was only 23.3% of the national total. In fact, local governments have financially depended on general and categorical assistance grants from the central government. This is the one big reason why the central government could control the locals. Overcoming financial weakness and political vulnerability, local governments have been struggling to get more income resources from the central government. As a result, local governments started collecting cigarette sales tax from 1984. After then local education tax was introduced, specifically, local sales tax and local income tax, which is 10% of national sales and income tax each, and were introduced in 2010 (Yoo & Lee, 2020).

7 Nonprofit Sectors

7.1 Historical Background of Nonprofit Sector in South Korea

In South Korea, the traditional Confucian culture and consecutive authoritarian governments delayed the development of an autonomous and independent nonprofit sector. But, over time the nonprofit sectors became popular with democratic developments. Nonprofit sectors have various names, which label organizations situated between the state and business as follows: nongovernmental organizations, civic movement organizations, nonprofit organizations, public interest corporations, civil society organizations, and nonprofit civil organizations. It is not simple to determine the boundaries of the nonprofit sectors, and there have not been any clear features to distinguish the state from civil society throughout the history of Korea. The nonprofit sectors’ experiences in South Korea can be explained in three phases. The first phase covered the period before the early 1960s when the aim of South Korea was to protect the safety of the state. Mainly, during this time there were nonprofit organizations that were service-oriented and gave welfare services or implemented improvement plans for the poor, and most of them were funded by foreign aid. The second phase started with the authoritarian developmental state. It began from the early 1960s and continued until 1987 when the Great Democratic Movement took power from the authoritarian regime. The rapid growth in the economy caused the segregation of society and the expansion of a middle class. Also, civil organizations developed significantly and independent civil activities grew to a certain extent. In the early 1980s, a variety of civic groups such as women’s groups and consumer advocacy groups had the opportunity to develop with the support of the middle class. During the democratic transition in 1985–1987, well-known advocacy civil organizations such as Lawyers for a Democratic Society, the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice, and the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy came to light. The third phase started with the end of the authoritarian regime in June 1987. This phase referred to efforts to expand public debate and participation in the formulation of public policy, increase the domain of human rights, and protect public resources from the pressures of economic development. After this phase, the nonprofit sector has become a strong and autonomous body in relation to the country and business sector. Nonprofit sectors have noticed the importance of their own power that is able to repress bureaucrats, politicians, and big businesses (Kim & Hwang, 2002: 1, 2, 3, and 4).

7.2 Nongovernmental Organizations or Civic Groups

After South Korea’s democratic shift in 1987, gradually the political restrictions on civic organizations reduced. Human rights (such as freedom of speech and freedom of association), civil and political rights have advanced greatly over time. Also the South Korean rapid economic development has helped the civil groups refresh themselves over time and focus on human rights and public concerns (e.g., economic distribution, corruption, environmental protection, and bribery problems) rather than monetary concerns. Since the 1990s, there have always been dominant actors in the Korean public and political life in the form of civil organizations, such as the Korean Federation of Environmental Movements (KFEM), the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), and the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ). For instance, in June 2000, there were 2,193 registered nonprofit civic organizations. These organizations grew to 10,362 by March 2012. The Dae-Jung Kim and Moo-Hyun Roh administration helped civic organizations develop quickly and these administrations were positive to civil-societal participation in politics. Over time, these groups have strengthened and become increasingly effective. For instance, civil groups caused some laws, such as the National Basic Living Security Act in 1999, the Anti-Corruption Act in 2001, the Commercial Property Lease Protection Act in 2001, and the Bioethics and Safety Act in 2004 to be enacted (Namkoong, & Kim, 2018).

Nonprofit civil organizations were ratified by the act to support Nonprofit Civil Organizations promulgated in December 1999. The aim of the act is to uphold the efficient growth of nonprofit civil organizations and to expand the boundaries of the foundation for people’s participation as to form volunteers and other activities for the benefit of the society (Onder, ). It is also to promote the improvement of South Korean civil society by increasing public activities (Kim & Hwang, 2002: 8–9).

8 Public Personnel Sytem

Personnel administration includes all activities which are related to people in organizations. It uses human resources in order to achieve an organization’s aims in the most efficient way possible. The public personnel system can be separated into the procurement of human resources, development, administration, and regulation.

8.1 Overview of the Public Personnel System

The modern Korean public personnel system was firmly founded within the thirty-two years between the 1961 administration based on military authority and 1993—the year where Kim Young Sam and his Civilian Government came to power. In these years, the public personnel system was based on military influence. When South Korea officially applied for a local government system via election of local government executives, the Korean personnel system was both increasingly decentralized and liberalized at the same time. In South Korea’s history, we can divide the general public personnel administration into four periods (Cho, 2016) (Table 1).

Table 1 Four periods of public personnel administration (Cho, 2016: 82)

8.2 Characteristics, Features, and Basic Structure of Public Personnel System

South Korea has approximately one million public servants, and the ratio of national to local public servants is nearly 64 to 36. They generally consist of three categories: public officials working in general service (technology, research, administration, etc.), public officials working in special service (judges, general prosecutors, teachers, police officers, etc.), and public officials working in political service (elected and appointed). Public officials have different ranks and in general service are composed of the Senior Civil Service and ranks from 3 to 9. Generally public officials are employed through open competitive examinations. In South Korea, every year recruitment examinations for ranks 5, 7, and 9 are administered respectively through written tests (once or twice) and interviews. The system is also designed to take professional and experienced citizens for all grades (including Senior Civil Service) when necessary. Because gender percentage is important, the number of candidates coming from a particular gender passing the exam is determined to be over 30% for each recruitment exam, and a quota system is used for disabled and individuals coming from low-income groups. Education and training are very important in the public service system. Both new and experienced employees take training and education. For instance, leadership education is given to public officials, which are promoted to deputy director (rank 5), director (ranks 3 to 4), and the Senior Civil Service. Public servants who violate rules and responsibilities may be exposed to disciplinary actions which include reprimand, pay reduction, suspension, demotion, and dismissal expulsion. Also, in some cases, monetary penalties are possible. In addition, in order to prevent public officials from having illegal properties, public officials of rank 4 or over have to register all of their and their families’ properties. And high-ranking officials in the Senior Civil Service have to disclose their properties. If their properties were untruly registered or were not registered, their ownerships can face monetary penalties or disciplinary actions. Moreover, during the first three years after retirement, public officials of rank 4 or higher cannot have a job at organizations related to agencies that they have worked at over the last five years (Cho, 2018).

8.2.1 Career Civil Service System

The career civil service system in South Korea looks for skillful and young people who work sincerely and with devotion. The main features of career civil service are based on hierarchical tradition, closed recruitment, and strict protection of job security. The future workforce is more important than current capacity. Public employees begin to work from the very bottom of the organization. Also, public employees are considered employees for all people. Korean civil service’s typical features are guaranteed job security and political impartiality (Cho, 2016: 83).

The Korean public personnel administration system can be considered a rank-based combination of the career civil service and position classification systems. Public employees are chosen through exams founded on open and performance-related theories. Regular government service can be separated into 9 levels. The exams (different for each type of job ranging from prosecutor affairs to agriculture) are carried out by the minister of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. Also, each central organization, related educational organizations, and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security (MOPAS) should train and educate public officials. MOPAS creates basic rules and policies in order to improve, assist, and assess their education process. In addition, MOPAS is in charge of commissioning employee education within South Korea and abroad. Every central administrative agency has a duty to train and educate its own personnel about its own policies and other related departments. Public office educational institutes are in charge of offering basic education for potential officials and professional education for incumbent public servants.

8.2.2 Senior Civil Service (SCS)

High-ranking public official groups started appearing in Korean civil service in July 2006. The Senior Civil Service eliminates the rank 1 to 3 public official ranks and the service decides to recruit citizens to the empty positions by the open recruitment system based on performance and duty. The SCS has four major characteristics. Firstly, the open position system, which allows outsiders to flow in, and the job posting system, which promotes competition among departments, boost the competition for empty senior positions by helping opening empty senior positions to outsiders so as to find competent public officials. Secondly, the SCS is inclined to advance the skills of senior executives through an evaluation of proficiency, capability, education, training, and setting a minimum appointment period. Thirdly, the service encourages senior executives to improve or at least maintain the performance and responsibility of senior executives through eligibility screening, a job-rank system, and a job performance contract system. Lastly, the SCS uses an integrated management system when the SCS directs senior executives because they can conduct their duties by thinking of the national interest rather than their affiliated department (Cho, 2018).

8.2.3 Merit System

In South Korea, the merit system has been embraced as a basic personnel administration system. However, there have been many practices, such as some personnel management practices, which are against the merit system. Some personnel practices which are against the merit system were based on favoritism (regionalism, kinship, close relationship, party relations, etc.). This is partly due to the traditional Korean administration. But in South Korea party relations and political power transitions are not effective for manpower replacement compared to relations (friendship, kinship, family members, relatives, etc.). Also measures causing political impartiality are very strict and effectively prevent them from joining political activities. Irrespective of some practices against the merit system, the reason why the merit system is thought of as the fundamental personnel system of South Korea is that the constitution and laws are based on public office holdings, which is thought to be the basic principle of the merit system.

9 Public Administration Reforms and Developments Affecting Public Administrative Structure

From 1946 to 1960, in the initial stage of the foundation of the government after the Japanese colonial period, every single government system was newly introduced based on liberal democracy and republicanism. This was supported by the knowledge coming from the US. However, in reality, politics highly interfered with the civil service and patronage was still widespread due to the long historical tradition. Rapid industrialization and the growth of the civil service system took place under the authority of the authoritarian regime from 1961 to 1987. Political leaders were willing to reform the civil service so as to perform the initiatives and to make the bureaucracy more meritocratic. During the transitional period from dictatorship to democracy (from 1987 to 1997), there was an inclination toward small and efficient government. In spite of this effort, the size of civil servants grew. Since Dae-Jung Kim’s administration, global tendency of new liberalism and public management reform have been highlighted drastically (Nam, 2016: 8–9).

In the past two decades South Korean administrative structure has changed significantly. Over time, the Korean administration implemented many reforms in order to transform their structure based on the new public management thought. Korea implemented public administration reforms with the help of foreign organizations and internal dynamics. Traditional public administrations, New Public Management, and post-New Public Management were the leading prototypes of reform of public administration system. Throughout the Dae-Jung Kim (1998–2003), Moo-Hyun Roh (2003–2008), Myung-Bak Lee (2008–2013), and Geun-Hye Park administrations (2013–2017), South Korean public administration was significantly transformed. Some important reforms they made were the reorganization of government ministries, the executive agency system, rationalization of public enterprises, the Open Position System, and performance management schemes as the evaluation system for government departments and downsizing (Han & Kim, 2017: 56).

9.1 Basic Changes/Reforms Affecting Administrative Structure

Korean modern public administration has transformed from a weak government system to an authoritarian bureaucratic state, which fosters rapid economic growth in the postmodern period. This authoritarian bureaucratic state can be titled as a developmental state, which means that state intervened the economy and society highly. Korea has a developmental state tradition with the strong state-weak society relationship, which is based on the ideological weapons of Confucianism and anti-communism, which made the process of the state-led development strategy easier. The authoritarian governments between the 1970s and the 1980s were preoccupied with rapid economic growth as a compensation for an absence of political legitimacy so as to get popular support. Economic development could not be reached by the state’s coercive power to steer the economy and by the insulation of the pilot economic bureaucracy, like the Economic Planning Board and the perfectly synchronized institutional mechanism policy-making and execution.

After the democratic transition, South Korea was willing to embrace Western administrative values. South Korea had a lot of problems regarding globalization, liberalization, and the economic crises. To deal with these problems, South Korea planned to implement administration reforms in order to create good governance by creating a strong foundation for fiscal recovery and sustainable development.

9.2 Administrative Reforms in South Korea Before the New and the Post-New Public Management

• 1. Dae-Jung Kim administration (1998–2003): New Public Management proposals layered with a powerful bureaucracy

As mentioned before, due to the financial crisis in 1997, the Dae-Jung Kim administration had to implement reforms with a strategy of parallel development of democracy and the market economy. However, due to the developmental state and political restrictions, these reforms were not easy to achieve. Developmental state had an effect on the path of the reform process and affected public employees and society. Even if all the reforms took place, the strong traditions of the developmental state could hinder the applicability of New Public Management reforms (Han, 2005; P. S. Kim, 2000).

Even with the difficulties of the reform, the reform programs to reorganize the central government structure took place in 1998 and the programs cut down on the number of cabinet numbers from twenty-one to seventeen, with a 20% cutback in staff. The Ministry of Government Administration and the Ministry of Home Affairs were combined to create the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, which increased its power over local governments and other ministries using reforms. Also, the Dae-Jung Kim’s administration aimed to adjust the government by setting up a regular government agency that was responsible for administration reforms. Hence, the Planning and Budget Commission was established in 1998 to observe reforms and later with the new name the Ministry of Planning and Budget, played a vital role in the reform. Since 2001, with the privatization of eight Social Enterprises, the Kim government has decreased the large number of public employees in the central government by approximately 16% or 22,400 civil servants. But the other reform was implemented to set up the Ministry of Women Affairs and the 2 positions of the Deputy prime minister for Economy and Human Resource Development in 2000. This action is against the expectation of small government (Han, 2005: 355–356).

• 2. Moo-Hyun Roh administration (2003–2008): Reflective of New Public Management measures toward the emergence of post-New Public Management

President Roh took the power in 2003 and set up the Presidential Committee of Government Innovation and Decentralization as a main apparatus for public sector reform. The committee was formed to involve civic groups and scholars in cooperation with bureaucrats. The committee considered administrative reform as an ongoing process through active interactions among bureaucrats, academics, and civic groups outside the government. It is clear that this reform by the Roh administration was one of the post-New Public Management ideas in public sector governance. This was against the Kim administration’s policy striving for a small and efficient government. The Roh administration focused on the aims and values that each agency adopted as their core responsibilities and gave an importance to the performance of tasks, rather than outputs. The Roh government put an importance on the needs of the public without severe governmental and personnel reduction. The total number of public servants increased from 889,993 in 2002 at the end of the Kim administration to 975,012 citizens in 2007 with the enlargement of nearly all agencies. The aim was to restructure the capacity of the country and represent the will of the public. Unlike the Kim government, nearly all of the state-run enterprises increased their role and size for their public interest rather than focusing on market-driven competition. Public value was very important for the Roh administration. Under the Government Performance Evaluation Act in 2006, which enhanced performance management, with the control of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs over all the government departments unchanged, the prime minister’s Office was added to use the power to review central ministries so as to manage public affairs.

• 3. Myung-Bak Lee administration (2008–2013): Return to traditional Public Administration with a mix of New Public Management and post-New Public Management

The Lee administration generally used the prime minister’s Office, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs, and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance for reforms in a traditional bureaucratic manner. The Lee government was deeply affected by the financial crisis in the US and Europe in 2008. The rate of economic development decreased from 2.8% in 2008 to 0.7% in 2009, went up to 6.5% in 2010, and then decreased again to 3.7% in 2011, and 2.3% in 2012. With the effect of the financial crisis, the Lee administration desired to restructure reforms with the New Public Management idea, which was considered pragmatic for efficiency and competitiveness. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance planned and supervised the cutback management plan according to New Public Management strategies. The number of ministries reduced from eighteen in 2007 to fifteen in 2008, and the privatization of state-run enterprises was considered important to make its administration smaller and more efficient. 3 public enterprises were totally privatized; 34 had been reorganized and consolidated into 15, with a reduction of 22,000 employees since 2011. Performance management was not very consistent for the Lee government. The Lee administration pursued the path of the preceding two administrations: the prime minister’s Office and supervising organizations, including the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, supervised, observed, and, if necessary, rechecked the results of self-evaluation for all departments of the administration. The organizational face-lift of the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs shows the reemergence of a traditional or Weberian administration. This encouraged a Weberian administration to remerge but it is connected to post-New Public Management. In the meantime, the number of executive agencies decreased from the peak of forty-five in 2007 under the Roh administration to thirty-eight in 2012 under the Lee administration. In general, the administrative reform efforts during the Lee administration returned to traditional Public administration with an inconsistent combination of New Public Management and post-New Public Management (Han & Kim, 2017: 65, 66 and 67).

• 4. Geun-Hye Park administration (2013–2017): With “Government 3.0” (a brand of public sector innovation) as a slogan more open, transparent, competent, and service-oriented government and creative-economy initiatives

  The Geun-Hye Park government had post-New Public Management in terms of the improved focus on integration and horizontal coordination in the government (Nam, 2016: 10). Also, with Government 3.0, the Geun-Hye Park administration focused on the ethics of openness, participation, collective intelligence, cooperation, and citizen trust. Mainly Government 3.0 was linked with application of information and communications technologies (ICTs) for enhanced and improved services and also with the opening and sharing of public data with people and enterprises. Also the administration has looked for ways to give more online services, to increase Koreans’ participation in the policy-making process and decision-setting, and to find solutions to different public problems via new technologies (such as cloud computing technologies, the Internet of Things, social media, and big data). The Geun-Hye Park administration was not successful in making the government smaller and enlarged the size of cabinet-level departments from seventeen in the Lee administration to twenty at the beginning of the Park administration. The number of government employees grew to 628,496 and 295,699 (This is from 609,573 and 277,122, in 2009) for central and local government officials in 2014 (Moon, 2018).

10 Current Problems, Risks, Potential Solutions, and Future Prospects

Since the Republic of Korea had been established in 1948, Korea has been going through a long journey to political democratization, economic development, and administrative enhancement. This process has definitely influenced local autonomy, private markets, and civil society simultaneously. During that period of time, the constitution was amended 9 times, the Korean War broke out, and two military coups occurred. However, Korea has embraced democratic values and achieved economic success. But traditional undemocratic values remain strong in many ways and multiple goals have to be handled including more local autonomy, more administrative reforms, and more market freedom.

The Korean government has had a long history of public administration reforms in order to enhance accountability, competence, and effectiveness in the public sector. Though earlier efforts centered on nation-building and the industrialization period, in the last twenty years administrative reforms have centered on enhancing effectiveness and efficiency at both individual and organizational levels. South Korea has carried out NPM-oriented reforms in order to overcome the financial crisis since 1997 and the IMF helped South Korea in return for some requests (such as cuts in the public sector, reduction of the bureaucracy via privatization, downsizing). To a certain extent, thanks to such measures taken by the government, openness and competitiveness have been enhanced, democratic values have become more widespread in the public administration, and service quality has been more efficient.

However, Korean administration has a long way to go from the point of perpetual reforms. To do this, Korean administration has to develop more insight domestically and internationally. Other developed countries, international organizations, markets, and civil society are definitely the major actors who could help the governmental efforts (Islam, Bingöl, & Nyadera, 2020; Islam, Bingöl, Nyadera, & Dagba, 2021); Nyadera & Islam, 2020) Korea is the only country which has changed its status from a beneficiary to a donor since World War II. If Korea continues this public administration trend, then its future remains. However, in this process, Korea has to get along with its global neighbors and demonstrate more maturity (Table 2).

Table 2 South Korea public administration