KJC Korea
Journal Central

The utility and validity of the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) has been confirmed in the analysis of policy change for more than a decade. Applications are wide-ranging and include studies on the environment, health and medical care, energy, economy, and industry regulation. In total, approximately 70 applications of the ACF have been published in a number of domestic journals during the period 2002-2013. The present study analyzes these previous applications not only by year and by topic, but also by research contents, methods, and framework. More specifically, the extant domestic literature is divided into four categories: 1) Studies in which the usefulness of the ACF has been confirmed in terms of understanding long-term policy change, 2) Studies which, though generally positive, attempt to correct and reinterpret aspects of the ACF because of its limitations as a unitary analytical framework, 3) Studies which utilize only particular features of the ACF, such as advocacy coalition, belief system, policy broker, and policy-oriented learning, and 4) Studies which apply the ACF along with other frameworks and theories such as multiple stream framework, policy process stages framework, policy networks, policy conflict framework, social network analysis, or two-level game theory.

This study identifies improvements required to climate change adaptation plans, based on analysis of the climate adaptation countermeasure implementation plans of 16 regional local governments. The plans are analyzed through the introduction of a new assessment framework, which builds upon guidelines addressed by previous studies and the advice of climate adaptation experts. The framework is composed of four tiers and 17 planning elements and includes operational definitions and evaluation criteria. The roles of processes and participants are also examined to shed further light on the adaptation plans. The results show all regional local governments to have generally performed well in ‘climate factor evaluation,’ ‘implementation’ and ‘goal setting,’ while the areas of weaker performance were ‘communication and support for resource use’ and ‘monitoring/evaluation/review.’ There was no regional local government which completely satisfied every evaluation criterion; the majority scored 26~71%. Interestingly, the top performing governments (Gyeonggi, Ulsan, Daegu, and Gyeongbuk) all rank highly in terms of active stakeholder participation in planning processes. This implies that active participation of diverse stakeholders in the establishment process of adaptation plans can produce improved plans with appropriate planning elements.

This study aims to analyze the impact of the introduction of smart devices on the digital literacy and digital divide issues. The dependent variable is digital literacy and the independent variables are access to smart devices, demographic factors such as gender and age, and socio-economic factors including education, income, occupation, and area of residence. In particular, this study used the retention of smartphone for interaction term. The research results reveal that smart devices have a positive impact on information literacy and also negate the effects of education in terms of the digital divide.

The purpose of this paper is the analysis of points at issue that is the introduction of the local bankruptcy. The advocates for the local bankruptcy assert that most of local governments are in the condition of the fiscal crisis that is caused by the reckless fiscal management of local government heads. However, opponents of this policy issue contend the causes of local governments’ fiscal crisis that are unfunded mandated of central government and tax reduction of 2008. Accordingly, this paper analyzed basis of the arguments of both sides. The results of the analysis show the local governments’ fiscal crisis is not fiscal crisis of theoretical frame that is the over budget state persistingly but the crisis of local governments’ fiscal autonomy. Naturally, few local governments are in fiscal crisis that caused by reckless fiscal management.

This research about among the indicators that constitute the conception of community well-being (CWB). The notion of CWB in this study is operationally defined with the three subordinate conceptual domains and the concrete indicators that amount to each domain. Upon the employment of the higher-order factors analysis, the result shows: 1) The local government and administrative services have the highest goodness-of -it measure; 2) related to household income and jobs play(s) a key role in explaining community wellbeing; 3) The of green space displays the third highest goodness-of-fit measure. This suggests that green space is significant in; and 4) Lastly, in the current model the three domains–the environmental domain, the social-political domain, the economic domain–contribute equally to the conception of community wellbeing. Whereas many international agencies such as OCED and UN put a heavy emphasis on medical and social well-fare services in the measurement of wellbeing, the further efforts to be made environment domain and local administrative services.

The present study examined the relations among the self-leadership, psychological empowerment and innovative behavior. In particular, this study investigated the psychological empowerment as a mediator in the relationship between self-leadership and innovative behavior. To do this research, the survey data were collected from 392 administrative staffs engaged in the 10th national & public universities. The analysis was performed with SPSS 18.0 for windows statistics package. In the research results, the self-leadership had a positive effect on the innovative behavior and the psychological empowerment except the relationships between constructive thought pattern strategies to self-determination and competence. Also, the psychological empowerment had a positive effect on the innovative behavior. Finally, the results showed that the psychological empowerment played as a partial mediator on the relationship between the self-leadership and innovative behavior. It was verified that the self-leadership does not only have a direct effect on the innovative behavior but also have an indirect effect on the innovative behavior through psychological empowerment as an additional path. Based on these findings, the implications and the limitation of this study were predicted including some directions for future studies.

The purpose of this study is to propose a strategy and policy implication for vitalizing citizen participatory governance through studying Seoul city’s two representative welfare policies, Seoul Citizen Welfare Standard(the first welfare standard composed by both government and citizens in Korea) and Hope Ondol Project. To achieve this, we have suggested 4 analytical frameworks of ‘participation’, ‘transparency’, ‘communication’, and ‘efficiency’ after reviewing precedent studies, and we have conducted qualitative interviews with the citizens and public servants in charge of the projects with literature review. As a result, various citizens could participate in each project and it allowed the actual projects to reflect people’s opinions more than before, narrowing down blind spots in welfare. However, we have found some side effects like a growth in work burden and problems in cooperative network during the process. This article proposes institutional and policy support for reducing work burden of public servants, stipulation of public participation, enhancement of city council’s participation and cooperation, and representativeness of citizen committee in the name of law and ordinance to revitalize citizen participation.

Interest in organizational performance has traditionally inspired leadership studies. By contrast, research on followership is just burgeoning, and there is little empirical research on followers, particularly in the public sector. In order to address this deficit, this study examined four types of followers according to two dimensions: perception of the importance of rule compliance and self-perception of performance. Socio-demographic attributes, self-image, perception of leaders, and follower attitudes were considered to identify the traits of each type. The results reveal that those with high scores in both dimensions exhibit positive images of the self, leaders, and peers, while those with low scores in either dimension exhibit relatively negative images of the self, leader, and peers. The study concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of the findings for followers in local government and the public sector in general.

This study examines the relationship between creative industry and the urban economy focusing on Seoul Metropolitan Area and then considers the effect of government’s policy efforts on vitalization of creative industry. To analyze the effect of creative industry on regional economic growth, this study employs location quotient and shift-share analysis. Then, the bubble chart analysis is used to identify the importance and current state of creative industry in the research area and to suggest the policy direction suitable for local conditions. The results show that the growth of creative industry has a positive relationship with urban economy. In doing so, central and local government’s policies for creative industry play significant roles. It implies that at the stage that creative industry is less mature than other industries, government's active policies should be needed. Prior to that, governments should understand the growth potential and conditions of creative industry that varies among localities.

The Freedom of Information Act in South Korea was enacted on Dec. 31, 1996 and taking effect one year later, which provides that any individual has a right to obtain access to government agency information, except to the extent that such records or portions of them are protected from public disclosure outlined by law and constitution. Information means matters recorded in documents, drawings, pictures, films, slides and other media, etc. corresponding thereto that are all made, acquired and managed by public institutions in oder to discharge their respective duties. Right to information has replaced freedom of information in South Korea. Information requires korean government agencies to push information out into the public space and make information available and accessible to all members of a society, unless there is a good reason not to. Therefore policies, formal procedures and legal systems have been dealt with so far for improved access to government-held information on government affairs, departments, local councils and public authorities such as all branches of the executive power of a state, province, municipality for any information citizens are interested in seeing. This research studies korean agencies' attitude of how to deal with information requests in the aspect of individual freedom using the Administrative appeals tribunals as formal procedures for improved access to government-held information. This study concludes that government and korean agencies need to pay serious attention to rethink the balance between disclosure of information and its protection to actualize the individual right to know in practice as well as meet the needs of contemporary society.