One of the factors which made the rapid economic growth possible in Korea of 1960s through 1970s is the government-leading "Five-year Economic Development Plan". Economic Development Plan was drawn from late 1950s, but it began to execute in full-sca...
One of the factors which made the rapid economic growth possible in Korea of 1960s through 1970s is the government-leading "Five-year Economic Development Plan". Economic Development Plan was drawn from late 1950s, but it began to execute in full-scale(actually) from February, 1964. When the government leadingly carried out the economic development, isn''t it inevitable for the state to reorganize the administrative structure for the economic development? Then in what way could the national administrative structure be reorganized?
The reorganization of the national administration for the economic development was already being proceeded slowly in late 1950s and very rapidly from 1960 through 1963. The analysis of the administrative system in early 1960s is necessary for understanding the economic development enterprise system in 1960s and 1970s, and it is very meaningful also in that the national administration of that time has succeeded until now. The object of this study is clarify how and why the national administrative structure was reorganized.
Generally speaking, the strategic changes of the national policy are accompanied with the changes of the administrative structure and system. So, in order to analyse the reorganizing process of the national administrative structure, both the analysis of the administrative structure and system and the basic theory underlying them are indispensible. This study explains the changes in the national administrative structure by correlating basic theory to the administrative structure and system. For that purpose, I''ll concentrate the economic development and the reorganization of the economic management system in 1950s, the economic development theory and the reorganizing process of the national administrative structure during the Democratic Party''s government, and the national reconstruction theory and the reorganizing process of the national administrative structure during the military regime.
The economic thory of 1950s began to form about 1957. Before then, the economic discussions inside the government were developed based on ''the economic restoration theory'' such as ''restoration from war damage'', ''restoration from war damage'' . But, according as the USA''s foreign assistance policy had changed from a grant-type aid to a credit assistance and domestic postwar restoration enterprises had made some product, economic discussions began to shift to ''economic development theory'', the theory on which government devises economic growth targets and strategies.
Following the appearance of ''economic development theory'', administrative structure began to changed. First, ''the Economic Development Planning organization appeared. The Industry Development Committee was the first organization established in 1959 for the economic development planning. This committee framed the "the three-year economic development plan"(January, 1960). Second, changes appeared in the economic management system, especially in the economic planning system. Though there was the Ministry of Planning since the foundation of Korean government, its role was limited to superintending the movement of materials. The appearance of the Industry Development Committee triggered the change of the economic planning system into the form available for planning and managing of the economic development program. That is, the change from "an ex post facto and partial economic planning system to an prearranging and overall economic planning system."
The Democratic Party Government(DPG) ruling after the April revolution of 1960 tried ''the Government and People Cooperating Economic Development'', claiming the motto of “Economy First.” For this purpose, DPG opened the comprehensive Economic forum and attempted to collect extensive opinions from ''civil enterprisers familiar with real economy''. The economic development theories of DPG assumed an aspect that the theories spread to people, who systemized them, and the theories returned to the governmental discourse. According to the ''Strategy of the Government cooperating typed Economic Development'', Democratic Party devised the promoting system of the National Land Constitution Project as ''the Government and People Cooperating Economic Development'' System. The National Land Constitution Project, called ''the Korean New Deal policy'', was public engineering works for relieving unemployed people, and it is significant as the first ''executed'' economic development project in Korea.
Two conflicting streams appeared in the process of the National Land Constitution Project. First, measure to strengthen ''centralized execution system'', by reducing the autonomical authority of the local national land constitution committee and expanding the administrative authority of the city of Seoul and other Provinces under the name of the ''efficient execution of the project''. Second, the appearance of ''the Socially Agreed Government and People Cooperative System''. After Jang Jun-ha and his intellectual people of "Sasang-gye (a monthly magazine)" joined the National Land Constitution Project, the project became reorganized to ''Socially Agreed Government and People Cooperative system''. But the military government ruling after the May 16th military coup excluded this the second and gave weight only to the strengthening of the centralized execution system.
During the military government, ''National Reconstruction Theory'' appeared in the foreground. National reconstruction theory adopted ''Scientific Management'' as one of the theoretic bases. Scientific Management from the USA, called Taylor System, aimed the maximization of the factory productivity. After the World War Ⅱ, Scientific Management spread to the national administration, leading ''the efficient administration'' in early 1960s, because the USA wanted to supply ''Scientific Management'' to the aided country including Korea. National Reconstruction Theory, like the Economic Development Theory, also emphasized the government-leading economic development plan, but there is a difference. National Reconstruction Theory was not limited on the economy but extended to the ''nation-wide affair''. It placed emphasis not only on the economic development but also on ''National Remodelling'', of which Economic Development Theory didn''t present clear blueprint. National Reconstruction Theory insisted to build up ''the National Mobilization System available to mobilize the overall administrative power most efficiently''.
Following the spread of National Reconstruction Theory, the National administrative structures were reorganized in large scale. Fist of all, The Board of Economic Programing appeared. The Reinforcement of ''the Economic Development Programming Organization'' which was proposed continuously since late 1950s was not institutionalized until 22nd, July, 1961.
The Board of Economic Programing drew up ''the five-year economic development plan'' and leadingly carried out the plan in 1960s and 1970s. But it''s not feasible to explain the government-leading economic development project only by the Board of Economic Programing . The military government introduced the National Programing System and found ''the Economic Development Programing & Executing Structure'' and, by adopting the Office Management System , it managed ''the administrative structure supporting efficiently the economic development''. These two systems, the National Programing System and the Office Management System, made the thoroughly consistent command chain possible. The former made the government form and execute the annual basic management plan, and the latter could build up the basis for the mass production and disposal of papers and affairs. However, the National Administrative Structure of the military government, claiming the motto of “Efficiency First", degraded to the inefficient the democratic values like taking the responsibility for public actions, explanation about the interim processes, and individual autonomies.