Basic Report

South Korea, like the U.S. and the European countries, is experiencing growing conflicts from exclusion and isolation. Corresponding to this, this study aims to develop and present balanced regional development policies that can enhance inclusion. The purpose of inclusive balanced regional development policies is to overcome the limitations and problems of balanced regional development and to ensure that each region or member of the society lives well without being excluded or isolated.
  
   To achieve the purpose of this study, theoretical discussions related to inclusive regional development were reviewed. First, various concepts of inclusive growth were closely examined. The background of inclusive growth discussed not only by international organizations such as the World Bank, the OECD, the IMF, or the WEF, but also by economists was reviewed. The discussions among economists focused on the balance between growth and distribution. The discussions from international organizations were mainly related to the social and economic circumstances of the 2000s. The focus was on how to resolve the growing conflicts caused by deepened social polarization and economic inequality during this period.
  
   By reviewing the concept of inclusive growth, the concept of inclusive growth of this study was operationally defined. In addition, through a comprehensive review of the elements of balanced regional development policies that South Korea has implemented so far, the foundation for measuring the degree of inclusion was established. By this process, elements were defined: institutional environments aspect, participation and governance aspect, communication aspect, space openness aspect, and subject aspect.
  
   Then, the degree of inclusion of regional development policies of previous governments of South Korea since the 2000s to the present was measured not only by these aspects, but also by the comprehensive aspect. As a natural consequence, each government differed from each other and the difference and characteristics of each aspect of inclusion were observed. Compared to the Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations, the Roh Moo-hyun and Moon Jae-in administration tended to have higher levels of inclusion. Overall, the Roh Moo-hyun administration focused on balanced regional development. The Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administration went for competitiveness, effectiveness and happiness. The Moon Jae-in administration is pushing for regional balanced development with inclusive policies.
  
   The international case study part reviewed not only the foreign countries such as the European Union or the Great Britain, but also major international cities for policy implications. The countries, that were reviewed, were presenting enhanced inclusion as an explicit goal of their policies and were developing and pursuing initiatives to achieve it. The cities, that were reviewed, were Barcelona, New York, Leipzig, and Malmö. They had slight differences, but they were mostly presenting inclusive growth as an explicit goal for regional development and designing policies to minimize conflicts from discrimination and exclusion. It was found that various initiatives were implemented for minimizing exclusion of the socially disadvantaged in jobs, education and community as well as spatial balanced development within the region.
  
   The final part of this study develops and suggests alternatives to the policies of inclusive balanced regional development. First, it presents principles and directions for the inclusive balanced regional development policies. In principle, the pursuit of development of spatial justice was established to remove exclusion and isolation that comes from the location of living space by equalization of quality of life conditions. Then, the new concept that is different from the previous or current regional balanced development policies and that we should pursue in the future was presented. Unlike focusing on achieving aggregating and consequential balance that previous regional balanced development sought for, the new concept not only focuses on removing exclusion during the final stage, but also emphasizes fair participation of policies from the decision making process. Next, this study presents how to drive inclusive balanced regional development through the aspects of human inclusion, spatial inclusion, and governance inclusion. In addition, this study presents how to create an implement system where central and local governments can cooperate while concerning for the socially weak and how to reorganize special accounts and the revision of laws to achieve it.