Over the past 60 years, Korea has developed due to its central government's centralization policy and the intensive concentration of the Seoul Metropolitan Area. However, given the damage caused by centralized powers, which undermine continuous growth, and considering domestic and international circumstances, it is necessary to transfer the central government's authority and disperse the centralization of the Seoul Metropolitan Area. Internally, rapid industrialization and urbanization have led to overcrowding in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, economic slowdown in non-capital regions and regional imbalances, which has led further to slow growth and weakened national competitiveness. Externally, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also tend to reflect the decentralization efforts of developing countries in providing economic support to them.
This study presents decentralized state management tasks and establishes models and governance along with decentralized strategies to enhance national competitiveness and improve quality of life through decentralization. To this end, first, the level and task of decentralization to improve balanced development, national competitiveness, and quality of life of the people is presented. Second, spatial hierarchy and an association model as a unit of decentralization are developed. Third, a step-by-step strategy for implementing decentralized state management tasks is proposed. Fourth, this study aims to present a strategy for division of roles and governance between central and local governments in a decentralized governance system.
As a research method to achieve the purpose of the study, the main issues were derived not only from the literature survey but also from a quantitative indicator analysis, and the evidence was presented through the analysis of surveys completed by local residents, public officials and experts.
The current status of power was pointed out in five areas, including legislation, administrative function allocation, finance, personnel and organization, and planning authority. First, current laws are structures that have no autonomy in which municipalities are forced to move as intended by the central government. Second, the distribution of affairs between the state and the province is unbalanced, and the government handles the affairs through special local administrative agencies, resulting in duplication of work among central governments, regional governments and local governments. Third, the proportion between national and local tax is imbalanced at 77.5%:22.5%. The central government's expenditure is 39.5%, while the revenue is unbalanced at 77.5%. As a result, regional and local governments have low financial independence. Fourth, the distribution of human resources among central governments, regional governments and local governments is imbalanced. The state is involved in personnel organization, and the provinces do not possess the authority to organize personnel. Fifth, municipal governments do not have the authority to plan independently because the central government decides on the planning criteria.
To exemplify this, as a result of analyzing the case of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, which has the experimental characteristic of decentralization, positive and negative evaluations were mixed in terms of economic and living indicators. Positive indicators include population, an economically active population; gross domestic product; building permits; land transactions; car registration; air transport; passenger transport; travel agency registration; tourism accommodation; abundance of tourists; medical institutions; medical personnel; foreign direct investment; and both national and local tax collection, to name some of the more notable ones. These indicators have grown significantly compared to the national average. Concerning negative evaluation, consumer inflation, housing and land price increase, criminal activity, traffic accident increase, vehicle increase, waste generation, and environmental problems have occurred, and the residents' settlement environment has worsened.
In terms of the institutional aspect, both positive and negative evaluations were made at the same time. Positive evaluations include the most significant cases of devolution since the decentralization policy, various forms of devolution, the expansion of fiscal funds through the levied tax statutory system, and the foundation of special cases for autonomous organization. Negative evaluations pointed out that the driving force for devolution was weakened by the recognition of the special self-governing province established by a specific government, the appearance of an imperial governor by the implementation of a single wide-area system, and the fact that it fell into a form of development-oriented special self-government rather than decentralization.
In the case of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, policy satisfaction was normal, which can be attributed to the side effects of incompleteness of decentralization and a lack of institutional capacity. Incompleteness of decentralization involves four main influences. First, the transfer of authority acts as an administrative or financial disadvantage or burden. Second, the law restricts the right to self-determination by providing by laws. Third, the special autonomous islands were launched with the incomplete status of a single-regional administrative system or a special local administrative agency policy. Fourth, financial problems are not transferred according to the transfer of administrative work and authority. There are mainly five side effects. First, the problem is developed without order. Second, there is an imbalance among regions. Third, real estate prices are soaring. Fourth, there is the problem of an imperial governor. Fifth, the issue of income inequality has deepened since the launch of special autonomy. The following two key results were derived from case analysis of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. First, there is a need for consensus on which tier the central government will transfer its power to. Second, decentralization policy needs to be implemented by determining the priority of the transfer of central authority.
Sejong Special Self-Governing City started as a part of the balanced development policy, but is experimenting with the autonomous city model. The decentralized and balanced development policy resulted in positive and negative evaluations. The representative positive evaluation is that it contributed to the balanced development between the Seoul Metropolitan Area and the non-Capital Area. Negative evaluations showed that the city grew by absorbing the population of the surrounding area and problems with regional administration such as wide area transportation and water supply. Satisfaction level is normal for the single administrative system of Sejong Special Self-Governing City, but the dissatisfaction rate is relatively high. Problems of the single administrative system include insufficient implementation of the administration for local characteristics such as urban and rural areas, a lack in terms of reflecting the various administrative service needs of local residents, deepening bureaucracy due to city-centered administration, and weakening regional development due to a single administrative system. In addition, there was a lack of basic self-government bodies, which led to the weakening of regional development due to an absence of competition among regions.
Accordingly, two measures were raised for the development of Sejong Special Self-Governing City and the improvement of public service satisfaction. First, it is necessary to maintain the responsibilities of Eup, Myeon and Dong under the current autonomous city system. Second, the district should be reorganized and the leaders should be elected while maintaining the current system. The wide area administrative system of Sejong Special Self-Governing City is also normal. However, the dissatisfaction rate was slightly higher. Dissatisfaction with the wide area administration appeared, for example, in the public transportation network, and the need to install and operate the Chungcheong region wide-area organization (traffic, urban planning, environment, etc.) was solved. In order to solve the administrative problems related to the wide area system, it is also necessary to transfer the authority of special local administrative agencies. However, it is necessary to establish a special regional administrative agency to transfer the central government authority to the integrated agency. The problems faced by our society cannot be solved independently by the state or the central government, but are complex problems that the central government and local governments have to cooperate on establishing a governance system. In order to solve this problem, it is desirable to establish and promote a decentralized governance system.
The following results were derived to establish decentralized governance. It is desirable to increase the level of decentralization step by step and gradually transition to the decentralized regional government type. Distribute authority to relevant actors to provide public services, increase national competitiveness and improve the quality of life of the people. If the central government, regional autonomy, and basic autonomous bodies are unable or unequipped to do so, it is necessary to create new strata.
As much as possible, the level of consumption and the range of distance between the central government and local governments and beneficiaries should be as consistent as possible, and the hierarchy should be simplified, but the authority should be distributed and the responsibility should be enhanced. The current authority of the central government will be transferred from the central government to the Integrated Administrative Office of Special Local Administrations, the authority of the regional government will be transferred to the Union and the Basic Autonomous Authority, and the authority of the Basic Autonomous Authority will be transferred to Eup Myeon Dong.
The distribution of administrative work among the central governments, regional government, and local government is presented in the Local Autonomy Law and the Special Act on the Reorganization of Local Decentralization and Local Administrative System. Establish the principles of finance, organization and personnel, simultaneous transfer and supplemental power, overall transfer of power, and non-interference in accordance with office allocation. In the case of office transfer, transfer to the optimal subject in consideration of the possibility of transfer, regional capacity, and economies of scale and efficiency. On the financial side, the National Balanced Development Special Account is reorganized to create a linked cooperation account to be used as a resource for linked cooperation for newly formed associations. The scope of decentralization is to multiply the supply and benefits of public goods from the state to the individual, and to provide public services that enhance national competitiveness and public services that improve the quality of life of the people. The influence of decentralization ranges from enhancing national competitiveness to the happiness of residents, but establishes the scope and jurisdiction of each public goods supplier to meet the economies of scale, the principle of supplementation, and the principle of public goods supply.
The hierarchical structure of local governments should be considered to improve the mono-layer system to a two-layer system, and to change the two-layer system to a three-layer system. Promote this new structure in order to solve the problem of imperial authority, but set it in consideration of the scope of public service supply in terms of national competitiveness, balanced development, and decentralization. In the long run, it will make up for the shortcomings of the mono-layer and the two-tier system, and establish a hierarchical structure to enhance competitiveness, openness and efficiency, increase regional diversity and improve the quality of life of residents.
The wide area system problem, which is applicable to more than two regional governments, will be promoted in order to be solved by introducing a coalition system. A problem that spans more than two metropolitan governments will be solved by establishing a regional metropolitan area. Problems that span more than two basic municipalities are supported by the formation of a basic area (founding coalition). In order to increase the diversity and efficiency between regions, the regional areas will be set up in the same homogeneous area, and the system will be adjusted so that each region can be specialized. In order to enhance the competitiveness and openness of the region, the government will seek to establish a regional area with a population of more than 5 million. Demarcation of a regional metropolitan area will be an approach in various problem solving level, such as the issue of special recruit of local talented people around ‘the Innovation Cities’ the moving issue of additional public institutions, and metropolitan problems, in terms of service supply and national competitiveness enhancement problems.
In order to localize special local administrative agencies, special local administrative agencies that are functioning in the region will be integrated into the special local administrative offices to strengthen local accountability. The current special local administrative agencies are functionally active to promote projects by central government departments in the region, which makes it difficult to connect in the region and is not open-minded, and governance in the region does not work. In the early stages, special local administrative agencies are used as a link between the central and regional governments, and as an institution for implementing the regional development investment agreement system. Integrating Special Local Administrative Institutions into localized and long-term local governments, but integrating them with regional unions is necessary.
Enact and enforce a clerical distribution law (Eg, France) to clearly share the roles of the central government, special local administrative institutions, regional alliances, regional self-governing bodies, basic unions, local self-governing bodies, and Eup·Myeon·Dong. Each subject may be of a different type, such as the type of municipality, the type of association, or the administrative class, but performs independent work with clear office allocation. Each subject has a municipality with a parliament and an executive body elected by the residents, and may be composed of a parliament, an executive or an administrative class elected and sent by the municipality.
In order to provide public services to the central government, regional governments, and local governments, three things need to be provided: First, there must be a specific space for the service facility. Second, there must be a responsible body to manage this space. Third, it is essential to establish and operate governance among the central government, local governments, and local governments to provide smooth services. Transition from a vertical structure controlled by regional government to one embodying equal and horizontal relations between regional government and local government. We intend to build trust among subjects through consultation and agreement between stakeholder, and the establishment of agreements and contract procedures in the provision and management of public services. First of all, the problems of the decentralized model of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province will be improved and the decentralized model will be completed. Based on this, we will expand the regional metrology model to reflect the population size and regional conditions of the remaining eight regional provinces. Mirroring the case of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, it is based on the two-layer system rather than the single-layer system.
The problems of the decentralization model in Sejong Special Self-governing City will be improved and the decentralization model will be completed. Based on this, metropolitan cities, a small & medium-sized cities, and county models are created. It will apply to the metropolitan cities, base cities, and county models by reflecting each size of population and regional conditions. To improve the model of Eup Myeon Dong in Sejong Special Self-Governing City, the local autonomous and village autonomous models will be applied. It will be applied and diffused by introducing a super-decentralized model starting from the proper regions in the Chungcheong Area. In order to realize local autonomy for improving the quality of life of residents, we will systematically support the establishment of an experimental method so that an institutional foundation can be established and the experiment can be conducted in stages.
In order to successfully promote decentralization and achieve balanced development, it is proposed to establish a (tentative) decentralization and national balance department, grant control tower functions to solve the complex problems at hand, and improve related laws and systems.
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