2010, Vol.8, No.1

Civil Society and NGO 2024 KCI Impact Factor : 0.84

pISSN : 1599-8568
https://journal.kci.go.kr/civil&NGO

This paper tries to make a comparison of policy contexts, the regulation strength, institutional characteristics, the interpretation of social objectives and activity sectors between the social enterprise certified by Ministry of Labor(SEML) in Korea and community interest companies(CICs) in the UK. Main findings of this study are as follows; First, while the policy intiative to CICs aims to flexibilize the trading and to rebuild the communities, in case of SEML, it represents the government's confrontation with the shortage of social services and job places. Second, in comparison with institutional supports of the former which are indirect such as business advices and easier funding, those of the latter are more direct and market-oriented. Third, this paper deals with the direction for the improvement of SEML in Korea with respect to the connection with the community regeneration and the helping system by local governments shown in CICs in the UK.

This study aims at exploring the relationship between organizational type of CSOs and promotion of democratic values. The author focuses on the differences according to organizational type, while examining the assessment on the role of CSOs for promoting democratic values. The result shows that CSOs differentiate into 7 organizational types. It also reveals that a organizational type is more conducive to promotion of democratic values than the other. In particular, the variables of citizen involvement were decisive in differences of assessment according to organizational type.

It is well known that the government attitude toward civil society has a critical impact on the development of civil society organizations and civil society in general. This paper intends to analyze the perception and policies of Lee Myoung Bak government to NGOs. Focusing on the issues of autonomy, dialogue, and cooperation, a comparative analysis with the previous governments is made. Through this comparison, the key characteristics of civil society of Lee government is investigated in order to show to what degree and in what aspects the relationship between the state and civil society has changed. Findings of this study can be summarized in brief as follows: first, the level of civil society autonomy is going down due to the new control mechanism; second, dialogue partner is limited to not many NGOs and dialogue channel is not properly functioning; finally, assistance policy for civil society is also biased politically.