Present local government of south korea structure and operation mechanism

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE EOM JI YUN PRESENT LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH KOREA: STRUCTURE AND OPERATION MECHANISM MASTER DISSERTATION IN POLITICAL SCIENCE Hà Nội – 2019 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE EOM JI YUN PRESENT LOCAL GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH KOREA: STRUCTURE AND OPERATION MECHANISM MASTER DISSERTATION IN POLITICAL SCIENCE CODE: 60310201 Supervisor: Associate Professor PhD Pham Quoc Thanh Hà Nội – 2019 Acknowledgement I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all eminent scholars for their comments on this study, especially Preofessor Pham Quoc Thanh who has been my supervisor and introduced me years ago to the world of Politics in Vietnam I hope that this study will be more useful tool to understand on Local government of Korea Graduate student EOM JI YUN Contents INTRODUCTION - Reasons for this study - Overview of studies involved - Purposes and tasks of the study - Objects and scale of the study - Study methods - Findings of the dissertation - 7 Dissertation structure - CHAPTER SOME THEORETICAL MATTERS ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND COMPARATIVETHEORETICAL FRAMEWORK - 1.1 Definition on local government - 1.2 Definition on structure of local government - 13 1.2.1 The Chief Executive Officer - 13 1.2.2 The Council - 15 1.2.3 The Executive Committee - 16 1.2.4 The Staff of Local Government - 17 1.3 Limited Power of The Local Government - 18 1.4 Fiscal Structure of The Local Governments - 20 CHAPTER STRUCTURE AND OPERATION MECHANISM OF LOCAL GOBERNMENT IN COMPARISON - 23 2.1 Local Autonomy Law - 23 2.2.2 Local Government of Vietnam - 30 2.2.3 Generalization on local government structure in Vietnam and Korea - 34 2.2.4 Major similarities and causes - 37 2.2.5 Major differences and causes - 42 2.3 Local government operation mechanism - 46 - - 2.3.1 Generalization on local government operation mechanism in - 46 2.3.2 Similarities and Causes : Focus on Local Councils, Local Government Representative and Citizen Participation - 50 2.3.3 Differences and Causes : Focus on Local Councils, Local Government Representative and Citizen Participation - 60 CONCLUSION - 69 REFERENCES - 71 - - - List of Abbreviations PAR Public Administrative Reform OSS One-Stop-Shop GRD Grass-Roots Democracy GRDO Upgraded Version of GRD in ordinance in 2007 by the Decree No.79/2003/ND-CP PIB CISB The People‟s Inspection Board Community Supervision Board - - Investment INTRODUCTION Reasons for this study It can be said that certain democracy is established through the effectively completed decentralization of power, not just formal meanings In terms of this view, the government of Korea is still trying to reach to this completion The Korea achieved totally democratic form of local government system caused by vote of both the local government head and members of local council in the year 1995 The form of local government system means that local government has certain freedom with decentralization of authority from the central government and can be means of acquisition for a real democracy as local people are attended Local government is usually authorized for itself to achieve legally both local system and residential self-government According to the Local Government Act in Korea, the local government has very important responsibilities which are trying to improve local people‟s convenience and benefit in public and to rationalize its organization and operating Especially the local council represents local people including people‟s thinking and play a role as supervisor to monitor whether the policy from local government head is right To these acts, the local council has variety powers legally such as voting right, empowerment for the local council, administration inspection and right to investigate for government Moreover the role of local council‟s monitoring has more significant position - - Overview of studies involved I was looking for references especially on structure and operation mechanism of Vietnamese then I came across to “Joint Donor Report to the Vietnam Consultative Group Meeting on Modern Institutions” That is not internal report of Vietnam that is why it could let me have a disinterested attitude on doing study This reference showed that what they have core object for local people in local governing closed more to the people and what they have weakness point on a position related to their central government, especially it captured downward accountability trend from central to provincial units in terms of administration and financial support, and how this trend meet obstacle with efficiency and transparency including basic solution plan that I can refer With “Final Constitution of the Republic of Vietnam Adopted by the National Assembly”, I went through about what major component of that is different from Korea based on Constitution for operation and composition in local government of Vietnam The relation of between people‟s council and people‟s committee has clear distinction from Korea‟s one Moreover in terms of representative principle coming from the citizens, it would show a little ambiguity that local election of Vietnam cannot reflect totally in particular While studying on innovation of local government of Korea, I referred “Korean Government Innovation: Strategies and Methodologies for Administrative Innovation.” It was about analysis for improved government reform that for example, participation of citizen have increased sharply in all areas of local politics and affect straightly with a variety of voice from citizen Accordingly, this reference suggested that which measurement can accommodate these demands and give a proper way - - The crucial matters this study showed were related to connection between local and central governments That was of course based on hierarchy structure under central unit‟s control Thus I have considered how this relation can be restructured and in light of this I brought the report called “Report of the European Committee on Local and Regional Democracy” into this study This report was to give an overview of positive interaction between local and central authorities and regional authorities in States were regional authorities have legislative powers affection local government These relationships will allow the identification of good practices and show which actors participate in exchanges further future Purposes and tasks of the study 3.1 Study purposes Pointing out major features of the structure and operation mechanism of present local government in South Korea with its Vietnam 3.2 Tasks - Defining some important concepts - Structured the system of present local government in South Korea - Model the operation mechanism of present local government in South Korea - Clarifying pros and cons of present local government in South Korea Objects and scale of the study 4.1 Study objects Structure and operation mechanism of present local government in South Korea - - 4.2 Scale of the study - Scale of time: 01 2017 – 12 2018 - Scale of space: local areas of South Korea and Vietnam - Scale of contents: structure, operation mechanism and their attached strengths and weaknesses Study methods - Approach of political study -Quantitative and Qualitative methods; logical-historical method; comparative method; etc Findings of the dissertation - Interpreting some thesis-related theoretical issues - Structured the system of present local government in South Korea and model the operation mechanism of present local government in South Korea - Explaining some positive and negative characteristics of present local government in South Korea - Giving some practical recommendations Dissertation structure The study includes parts, namely Introduction, Content, Conclusions, References The Content comprises chapters: - - 2.3.3 Differences and Causes : Focus on Local Councils, Local Government Representative and Citizen Participation Most cleared different point of the local councils in each government is the way to be elected through the local election including local executive Voting is the most common form of Korean politic system Selecting representatives is to practice citizens‟ interest And also its Vietnam has this aspect in common that one particular party control all the local political process The form of local government in Korea reflects democratic institutional principles and major point is “Check and Balance” This major concept of local government of Korea is highly distinct from local government of Vietnam which might be in same group Firstly, local council oversight over the policy and activities of the executive branch is the most important function of local councils Local councils review policy proposals and budget preparation submitted by the executive and request changes, refuse it also Regarding this power, Local Autonomy Act guarantees the authority of council to inspect and investigate the executive branch‟s affairs for a maximum of 14 days for upper-level councils and a maximum of days for lower-level councils In addition, the council can demand the submission of documents, and demand to have the head of the local government or a public official appear in the session to give a testimony, which are allowed extensively in Korean politic system On contrary of Korea, in Vietnam, it appears that the members of the People‟s Council sometimes be the same persons who are members of the People‟s Committee which has intention to be elected among the People‟s Council members which is why cannot have a check and balance with absolutely indirect voting being different from the - 60 - adopting direct voting system of Korea Voting is the most common form of participation and it is a matter of civil responsibility All citizens of Korea go to the polls to elect the officials who will govern them Thus this could be determining factor to certain extent of participation of politic process between of two countries Figure Elected governors and voting rate in 2018 16 However, its power of local councils is modest comparing to its power of executives Executives have exercised absolute power within their jurisdiction area and it‟s called, “strong leadership without challenge” Local units in Vietnam, on the contrary, seem to be operated like one body not concentrating power on the particular part In fact, the Korean one dominate the policy making process in local governments without serious challenge from local councils, in case of the party is same that both of executives and local councils get involve in There is only interruption from 16 http://www.rokdrop.net/2018/06/ruling-party-records-massive-local-election-victory-in-south-korea/ - 61 - their party they are involved and It can be said that they have to follow the party‟s value This phenomenon is somewhat similar to its Vietnamese system that one party has only controlled but for all areas A series of research on mayoral leadership and policy-making processes in Korea indicate that the Korean local government, in general is characterized by a mayor-dominant system, whereby the policy process of local government tends to be dominated by elected executives and appointed public administrators sharing some portion of a mayor‟s power Especially Veto Power enables executives to exercising numerous powers With this, they can refuse decision from local councils Vietnam comes more local government responsibility of policy making It has been confirmed that the community participation and local government capacity in urban housing and infrastructure upgrading projects are positively related However, it still largely tends to be one particular to make a policy and implementation of it and also those major two tend to follow to the same line department or same line ministries of the sector in which they work at higher levels Especially, the cleared distinct thing can be shown about citizen participation, despite of a few same aspects with each other Its participation of Korea has been more extensive rather than Vietnam with variety tools that can make in local sectors Firstly, initiative process is the petition which ask revising, enacting, abortion of ordinance directly to local government by the gathered citizens Also, to prevent abuse of this, it can be required to a certain extent of citizen‟s signature depending on the purpose of the petition and the size of local government - 62 - Following of that, resident asks for audit and inspection and resident‟s lawsuit Korean local residents have a right to officially request audit and investigation about what local government conduct And most cases, the requests are made by public interest groups, rather than by individual citizens Citizens who have made a request for auditing and inspecting may file a lawsuit for unlawful acts or the neglect of business related to matters requested for the inspection against the head of the competent local government In addition, there are recall and referendum Recall is the most powerful citizen participation mechanism in representative democracy in the sense that citizens can remove elected officials from office before their terms expire For notable examples, Hong joon-pyo, who was one of candidates for Korea president, had recalled by citizen of Gyeongsangnam-do when he was in the executive position of that province at the year 2015, caused by weakening public health system and suspending free meals for school in his jurisdiction Three million of citizens had supported his fault of policy decision as recall And another recent case, which might be unsuitable case, President Park Guen-hye had been removed from presidency by the Constitution Court with suspicion of corruption at 2017 Above factors show citizens can be allowed to ask certain demand for government by authorized right while its tools by citizens have been limited for use and would be encouraged conservative using Even it have not been supported by legal bases To understand difference of participation in Vietnam, it should be studied totally in terms of whole political system of Vietnam In Vietnamese system, Article of the Constitution identifies the Communist - 63 - Party as the representative of the people and the nation That is why people‟s representation in politics thus takes place through the preestablished structures of the single Party, rather than via institutions of liberal democracy Meanwhile, its Korean system has adopted a multiparty system The another meaning of local government is the way to fulfill obviously the word means “Grass Roots” by being closest to the people and to gathered voting for next local election Thus, all the parties have to collect people‟s demands and reflect it as making policy Following this mechanism, citizens have involved more rather than Vietnam Voting has been a valuable tool to gather people‟s voice In Vietnam, it has been common of proxy voting by family members, which is legal in village elections and overwhelmingly acts to disenfranchise women Constitutional guarantees of election quality are realized in National Assembly and People‟s Council elections more than in village head elections The Vietnam Fatherland Front, a leading social-political organization, is responsible for organizing elections, including selecting and nominating candidates who are placed on the ballot Although the number of candidates usually exceeds the available positions, elections are structured so that few nominated candidates actually lose Nominations are made through a mixture of decisions from above and suggestions from the local level for which the election is held This results in a pre-negotiates compromise between corporatist representation of various social groups and many of whom hold dual appointments in the Communist Party or government administration Vietnam‟s political system provides numerous structured possibilities for citizens to participate in decision making at the village and - 64 - commune levels According to the 2013 Constitution, „the people shall exercise state power through direct democracy and through representative democracy‟ As human and economic development in Vietnam has increased over the nearly three decades of Doi Moi(Renewal), people‟s expectations of governance, or public decision-making, are also changed In practice, implementation of legal rights to participation often lags behind the letter of the law In particular, the provisions of Article of the Constitution are broader than many previous regulations on direct and representative participation, yet have not yet been put fully into practice The implementation gap poses both a challenge and an opportunity for expansion of people‟s voices in the political system Direct participation refers to people‟s substantive involvement in local governance Direct participation corresponds to the commonly understood steps of “People know, People discuss, People do, and People monitor” Most Vietnamese citizens are aware of basic governance structures, but their awareness drops off rapidly when asked about more detailed or complex topics Local officials interpret citizens‟ low levels of knowledge as evidence of apathy or poor education This may sometimes be the case, but they are more concerned about practical impacts of governance than about the slogans and theories used by officials Concerning village heads, which are the leaders closet to most citizens, extremely few respondents are aware of their correct term of office As expected, people with connections to authority showed higher knowledge and awareness, especially on more detailed questions Urban residents also had slightly higher rates of positive responses, but this difference was not very large In the case of suburb areas, numerous people could not remember clearly how the commune people‟s Council is elected or who its - 65 - current members are, which make informed voting decisions difficult and even some of them has confusion between the People‟s Council and People‟s Committee, which they only referred to collectively as the authorities In urban and more developed areas, citizen apathy was explained on the basis that politics were not important to most residents, and in rural and mountainous areas, because people are too busy working to make ends meet to have not having time to pay attention to public issues This suggests a need for rethinking the design of any program that aims to increase citizens‟ knowledge as the basis for improved governance Local cadres are well informed about policies concerning participation Ordinary, citizens, by contrast, understand policies in term of practical impacts, to the extent they are aware of them at all Vietnamese citizens participate in a wide array of mass organizations and informal social groups at the grassroots level Participation in associations, however, does not necessarily equate to active involvement in socio-economic development, such as land use, development planning, or budget monitoring Meanwhile, citizen monitoring of local government performance thorough vertical accountability structures forms the lowest performing area of direct participation, with People‟s Inspection Boards(PIBs) and Community Investment Supervision Boards(CISBs) often not functioning as designed While participation in associations involves charity, public events, and social activities, the category of socio-economic participation covers land issues, budget monitoring, and voluntary contributions to local development Overall, participation in socio-economic issues is consistently lower than participation in associations The level of - 66 - participation is relatively higher on issues which affect people‟s livelihoods most directly Local leaders said that on local budget transparency, it is difficult to invite all people to participate Local people cat care much about the local budget sine they are busy with their daily lives Local authorities also find it difficult to gather people‟s opinion on budget when they not have the authority to decide how big the budget is Local authorities not have much freedom in deciding on the local budget because they still rely on the central budget Thus direct participation of people depends on if there is an inviting environment for the participation, even in ethnic minority communities In direct or representative participation refers to the election of village heads, delegates to People‟s Councils, and delegates to the National Assembly Like other single-party states around the world, Vietnam uses elections to confirm the legitimacy of the ruling party, give citizens a partial voice in selection of candidates for certain leadership positions, and provide a check on accountability and effectiveness of political leaders at the local level In all locations , national elections were described as like a community festival Citizens put on their best clothes Village and commune officials invite everyone to vote The only people who not come to vote are those too elderly, ill or disabled to come to the polling station However, as I mentioned ahead part, there is almost one or two candidate to be nominated not with multiple candidate for each position And proxy voting is another crucial matter Proxy voting is nearly as common in urban areas as in the countryside, while some women also apparently voted as proxies for men, the overwhelming effect of proxy voting is to disenfranchise women in village election and it can be another barrier from participation for all - 67 - To summarize, both countries show similar local governing system in fact being aspect of having the executive branch, legislative branch However, these organs cannot be operated exactly same in each country indeed in case of independence The form of local government of Korea has considered the one very importantly to be checked and balance between two crucial organs and the Local Autonomy Act support this momentum Moreover, citizen participation has been more extensive to involve in local political area with a large number of tools such as petition, audit, inspection of representatives and especially voting for all crucial units based on legal rights In this point of view, Vietnam is lack on the contrary Under their governing system, it can be regarded as one body from both councils and executives probably and also following to the same line of department or same line of ministries in which they work at high levels But clear point is that this trend is moving to closer to “Grass Roots, providing numerous structured possibilities for citizens to participate in decision making at the Village and Commune levels There are negative points that Korean constitution grants local governments the power explicitly causing subordination relation with central government and the voting for consisting of local government has considered as a middle term test against for recent government by the president or ruling party without local issues Local spending and taxation have managed by central government are serious problems to be solved immediately to be free from central government‟s influence - 68 - CONCLUSION This study not only compares between of two countries‟ local system but also while comparing, it can leads to improving ways to be independent from the other authorities like central and focus on local people‟s voices what they truly want to through the local agencies To reorganize the relationship with central government and rearrange their own internal system, it could correspond to literally meaning of „local autonomy‟ indeed Both of local units have been faced with hierarchical relationship of central units for a long time Thus the way to actualize local‟s own things is to be away from central part and make a cooperative relation with it Korea local government has not been well developed like other countries which have common politic system Korea has experienced rapid socioeconomic changes such as urbanization, modernization of social infrastructure, and the development of transportation and communication technology since the 1970s They have been rarely reflected in the current jurisdictions of local government And differences in the sizes of area and population even among the same level local governments cause an imbalance in financial capacity In turn, this imbalance of financial capacity becomes a cause of the expanding gap among local governments Thereby local governments always depend their finance gaps on central government The significant matter is that all the head of local government waste budget on useless things that can attract to people for next voting Meanwhile, in case of Vietnam, it showed in earlier part that administrative capacity at the local government level is weak totally to attract the citizen‟s interesting such as the lower the education level of officials, with particular bottlenecks at the commune level In addition, it - 69 - could be needed to level of transparency and accountability institutions and people‟s councils, people‟s committees need to have training pertinent to their specific tasks Citizen participation and collaboration are considered indispensable key concept in relation to the formulation of new policies and plans by local governments Even though it has well-developed local system and assignment of fiscal, local unit exists for the people in the end Gaining fully support from the citizens will be possible to bring the huge power to solve the matters from operating the local government as I mentioned above That is the sole reason for the authorities‟ existence - 70 - REFERENCES Ahn, Byong Man (2000), Poliics and Government in Korea, (4th Ed) Seoul Dasan Choe, Chang Soo (2010), An Exploratory Study on the Time Management of Local Councilors in Korea: With a Special Reference to the Individual, Institutional, and Political Variables, Korean Local Government Studies [PP 173-193] Developments in British Politics (1997) Final Constitution of the Republic of Vietnam Adopted by the National Assembly (2013) Gainsborough, M (2010), Vietnam: Rethinking the State Zed Books Gainsborough, M (2010), Present but not powerful: neoliberalism, the state, and development in Vietnam, [PP 475-488] Gidlund and M Jerneck, Local and Regional Government in Europe: Evidence from Glasson, J.(1978), An introduction to regional planning, London ; UCL Press Gomme, G.L., (1987) “Lectures on the principles of the local government”, delivered at London school of Economics, Lent term 1987, Westminister, whithall garden [PP 1-2] 10 Hannah, J (2007) Local non-government organizations in Vietnam: development, civil society and state-society relations Seattle, WA: Ph.D Dissertation University of Washington 11 Heike Hermanns, The Reorganisation of Local Administration in South Korea : The Debaate on Democracy and Efficiency in Local Governance 12 Hung Viet Ngo, Jurian Edelenbos, Alberto Gianoli (2019), - 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- 4.2 Scale of the study - Scale of time: 01 2017 – 12 2018 - Scale of space: local areas of South Korea and Vietnam - Scale of contents:... government structures In order to understand the function and structure of local government, it is important to define local government and understand the meaning of local government democracy and values