Local Administrative Institutions As Development Action Instruments : The Korean Case

Abstract

This paper is an explication on local administrative phenomena. Specifically, it is concerned with administrative institutions (public sector) of the provincial level and below of the Republic of Korea. Such institutions include local governments, field service branches of central government and other special agencies in the field. The capacity (system state or health) of this group of administrative institutions is evaluated (or considered) against such referents as administrative development and management of development programs. The discussion is centered around the theme "lack of capacity for local action" in development administration. This paper is intended to summarize important characteristics of the local administrative phenomena of Korea in general. The subject is the local administration as a whole. The scope o the subject (problem) is delimited by various criteria. First of all, it is located in the Korean setting. And, the local administrative system is only one subsector of the total administrative phenomena of the country. The problem size is further reduced by such guiding concept as development and managing development actions. These delimitations notwithstanding the size of the problem is fairly large, and the perspective of the author's thinking is also very broad. Thus, sweeping generalizations and oversimplifications are unavoidable consequences of the natter of course. The nature of this paper is typically abstract, and it relies upon description of aggregative tendencies by employing "more-or-less" terms. This paper is closer to indication of problems rather than to measurement of them.