A Comparative Study of Governance in State Management: Focusing on the Roh Moo-hyun Government and the Lee Myung-bak Government

Abstract

This study aims to explore development discourses of the Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak governments and evaluate their governance in achieving their respective visions of development. The two governments advocate sustainable development and green growth, respectively, as their national development paradigms, and strategies, laws, and organizations were developed to realize their goals. This research analysis reveals that the Roh administration perceived and reflected the concept and the importance of governance into its own policy framework while the Lee administration has not. The Roh administration perceived civil society as the subject of governance and policy process whereas the Lee administration perceives it as the object. In conclusion, the Roh administration can summarily be described as non-authoritarian with civil societycentered governance that pursues sustainable development, while the Lee administration is authoritarian with token state-centered governance that pursues green growth. This difference results from the difference between the nature of development discourse, principles of government management, perception of governance, leadership style and values, and the support basis of each government.