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@article{ART002502814},
author={SO JIN KWANG},
title={Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments},
journal={Korean Society and Public Administration},
issn={1225-8652},
year={2019},
volume={30},
number={2},
pages={1-30}

TY - JOUR
AU - SO JIN KWANG
TI - Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments
JO - Korean Society and Public Administration
PY - 2019
VL - 30
IS - 2
PB - Seoul Association For Public Administration
SP - 1
EP - 30
SN - 1225-8652
AB - This paper aims to explore the logic of devolving the authority or power from the central government to local governments through democracy and regional development perspectives. The novelty of this study is reviewing the devolution of the central power from the essential approach of designing local governments in contrast to previous studies’ comparative approaches with foreign countries. So far, local autonomy used to be viewed as the requirements of democracy, and as the efficient apparatus to raise people’s quality of life through regional development, but its operating mechanism would not be explained. This paper tries to explain how the devolution of the central authorities to local governments contributes to democracy and regional development. Individual freedom needs corresponding responsibility to make democracy work. Even the best designed representative democracy, if any, cannot realize the ideal goal of democracy. However, local autonomy at grass-root level, such as Maul(village), Myun(commune) and Eup(township), can complement representative democracy by promoting people’s initiatives and ownership, based on people’s direct participation. Regional development on people’s needs can be reproduced by distributing public benefits in the more fair way. Small is beautiful, and also forms the basis of big one by stratifying people’s demands in the public sector as well as in the private sector. This paper ultimately shows that justice in human society can be practiced better by local governments at the grass-roots level than by the centralized authority or bigger local governments. This paper also suggests local governments at the grass-roots level can satisfy the current paradigms of regional development such as ‘community governance’, ‘social capital’ and ‘sustainability’ effectively. In conclusion, small, dispersed and decentralized organizational entities can work better to meet people’s needs for public interests by promoting people’s initiatives and ownership. People’s initiatives and ownership can make democracy work better, and people’s needs for public interests are geared with quality of life, the final goal of regional development.
KW - Devolution of power;Democracy;Regional development;Local autonomy at grass-roots level;Community governance;Social capital;Sustainability
DO -
UR -
ER -

SO JIN KWANG. (2019). Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments. Korean Society and Public Administration, 30(2), 1-30.

SO JIN KWANG. 2019, "Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments", Korean Society and Public Administration, vol.30, no.2 pp.1-30.

SO JIN KWANG "Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments" Korean Society and Public Administration 30.2 pp.1-30 (2019) : 1.

SO JIN KWANG. Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments. 2019; 30(2), 1-30.

SO JIN KWANG. "Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments" Korean Society and Public Administration 30, no.2 (2019) : 1-30.

SO JIN KWANG. Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments. Korean Society and Public Administration, 30(2), 1-30.

SO JIN KWANG. Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments. Korean Society and Public Administration. 2019; 30(2) 1-30.

SO JIN KWANG. Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments. 2019; 30(2), 1-30.

SO JIN KWANG. "Democracy and Regional Development through Devolving the Authority from the Central Government to Local Governments" Korean Society and Public Administration 30, no.2 (2019) : 1-30.