Beginning with a local election in 2010, the necessity and directivity of local government’s extension of social welfare have been discussed and the necessity of research on local assemblymen’s social welfare-related assembly activities has been r...
Beginning with a local election in 2010, the necessity and directivity of local government’s extension of social welfare have been discussed and the necessity of research on local assemblymen’s social welfare-related assembly activities has been raised. On this account, this study examined the influence of elementary local assemblymen’s social welfare expertise and welfare consciousness upon welfare-related assembly activities. Assemblymen’s expertise was classified into objective welfare expertise and subjective welfare expertise, and welfare consciousness was examined by questionnaire items about the intention of support for selective welfare. Study subjects were 416 elementary assemblymen of 25 autonomous districts in Seoul. Since study subjects were elementary assemblymen who were elected by 6-kind local elections, the period of study was from July, 2010 to October, 2012.
Study findings are as follows:
First, according to whether or not they majored welfare-related courses, assemblymen’s number of enactment and revision of welfare-related ordinances was different greatly and the difference was statistically significant. This finding seemingly presented the fact that assemblymen whose major was a welfare-related course took part in the activities of community welfare development more actively, on the basis of welfare expertise acquired via their major.
Second, the extent of assemblymen’s social welfare-related assembly activities was comparatively examined between a higher expertise group and a lower expertise group, based on subjective expertise. Assemblymen of higher expertise more actively submitted representative motions for the enactment and revision of social welfare-related ordinances than those of lower expertise did.
Third, universal welfare-supporting assemblymen carried out social welfare-related assembly activities more actively than selective welfare-supporting assemblymen did. And the difference between the two groups was statistically significant. Universal welfare-supporting assemblymen’s average number of representative motions for the enactment and revision of ordinances was more than that of selective welfare-supporting assemblymen, and the scale of actual budget reflected by universal welfare-supporting assemblymen was bigger than that reflected by selective welfare-supporting assemblymen.
Fourth, assemblymen’s welfare activities were significantly different according to their perception of the class of core subjects for welfare policies. The number of motions proposed by assemblymen who perceived that only the class of extreme poverty had to be included in the scope of welfare beneficiaries, for the enactment and revision of social welfare-related ordinances, was fewer than that proposed by assemblymen who perceived that the middle class or the whole nationals had to be included in the scope of welfare beneficiaries. The scale of actual budget, reflected by assemblymen who perceived that only the low income bracket had to be included in the scope of welfare beneficiaries, was meager.
Based on study findings, political and practical suggestions of supporting local assemblymen’s welfare-related assembly activities are as follows: First, in order to support local assemblymen’s assembly activities for the extension of community welfare, it is necessary to recruit welfare experts as technical experts of local assemblies. In addition, it is necessary to prepare various educational opportunities in order to deliver knowledge on social welfare to assemblymen and cultivate their welfare consciousness. On the other hand, elementary local assemblymen must try to cultivate welfare expertise and welfare consciousness as representatives of local residents. In this procedure, it is necessary to work out a plan for local assemblymen to consult and cooperate with welfare experts in community.
This study was initiated to work out a support strategy for assembly activities of local assemblies and assemblymen, in order to satisfy local residents’ ever increasing welfare demand, and presented the importance of elementary assemblymen’s welfare expertise and welfare consciousness, based on study findings.