This study examines the relationship between the leadership of local government heads and policy succession, focusing on the policies promoted by Sejong City to establish the cultural identity of the city with 'Hangul' as a key keyword. When the head ...
This study examines the relationship between the leadership of local government heads and policy succession, focusing on the policies promoted by Sejong City to establish the cultural identity of the city with 'Hangul' as a key keyword. When the head of a local government and a ruling party are replaced through an election, a large change in policy can occur, and in this study, it was believed that the policy was succeeded rather than cut off, which intrigued the researcher.
The research question is 'How did the difference in leadership of the head of the organization affect the succession of the cultural policy of Sejong City?' and the independent variable is the leadership of the head of the local government and the dependent variable is the succession of the policy to establish cultural identity. The study was conducted as a qualitative study by utilizing document data such as reports and media reports prepared by organizations such as Sejong City Hall, and interviews with related parties.
Regarding leadership, an independent variable, the heads of organizations to be studied were Lee Chun-hee, the 2nd and 3rd mayor of the city, and Choi Min-ho, the 4th mayor of the city. In addition, based on the three criteria of ease of comparison between types, theoretical background and abundance of prior research, and importance in real administration, we selected four types of leadership: democratic leadership, procedural leadership, charismatic leadership, and entrepreneurial leadership, and analyzed the types of leadership that the two heads of local governments strongly exercised. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that Mayor Lee Chun-hee demonstrated democratic and procedural leadership, and Mayor Choi Min-ho demonstrated strong charismatic leadership and entrepreneurial leadership.
Regarding the succession of the policy, which is a dependent variable, only those promoted by each municipal government using a dedicated organization in Hangeul field were selected. In particular, the policy of the Lee Chun-hee administration was analyzed focusing on the '2021 Basic Plan for Creating a Hangul Love City', and the policy of the Choi Min-ho administration was analyzed focusing on the 'City of Culture Creation Plan of Sejong City(2025-2027)’. Prior to the analysis, we looked at the policy change theory of Hogwood & Peters(1983) and considered that the case of this study is close to policy succession among the types of policy change, especially nonlinear succession. Policy succession refers to changes in projects, organizations, and budgets that are the means of policy while maintaining basic policy goals, among them, nonlinear succession refers to changes in existing policies, goals, characteristics, and organizational forms. Therefore, the case of this study is considered to be a nonlinear succession when the policy and project goals, characteristics, organizational and budget forms change in the detailed business unit while maintaining the basic goal of establishing an identity centered on Hangeul.
As a result of the analysis, the change in the leadership of the group leader changed Sejong City's policy to establish cultural identity as follows. First, in terms of the goals and characteristics of policies and projects, the 'weak goal consciousness' was changed to the 'strong goal consciousness' and the 'internal center' was changed to the 'external center'. Second, in terms of the form of organization and budget, 'small scale' was changed to 'large scale' and 'simple' was changed to 'diversity'. In particular, it was notable that not only the size but also the organization's promotion system and types of budget were diversified. In addition, it was confirmed that the basic policy goals were not shaken, and that the color became stronger as the goal consciousness was strengthened, and the above changes in detailed business units were related to the transformation of democratic and procedural leadership into charismatic and entrepreneurial leadership.
By recording the cases of cultural policy succession in Sejong City, this study becomes an experience story that has maintained "continuity and stability" in the face of regime change. It is also significant in that it is a data that specifically explains the impact of leadership on policy. Due to the nature of qualitative research, there are limitations in that the subject of interviews or researchers can intervene, and it is also possible to analyze factors other than leadership as variables or to follow-up studies to find out whether policy succession continued even after the temporal range of this study.