Policy Coordination in South Korea

Abstract

Coordination has been one of the major problems in the field of public administration (Pressman & Wildavsky, 1984; Peters 1998; Bouckaert, Peters, & Verhoest, 2010). However, as the complexity of policy problems increases and the policy environment changes, coordination is becoming more of a serious challenge to administration than ever before (Peters, 2018; Roberts, 2011). The failure of policy coordination can greatly undermine administrative capacity, so a serious approach to coordination is necessary not only theoretically but also practically. This study reviewed policy coordination theories and analyzed prior studies on current Korean policy coordination. In particular, I focused on the concepts, dimensions, mechanisms, and performance of policy coordination. What I found is that the number and variety of coordination studies in Korea is low. Most prior studies on coordination have focused on coordination between central ministries, and their methodology has primary taken the form of a literature review. Empirical studies on coordination performance have been few and far between. Based on these findings, I suggest several implications.