Basic Report

This study proposes the development strategy of a new type of local community council model in Korea that redefines the relationship between the local community council and the administrative agencies of local governments, including eup, myeon, and dong and proposes legal and institutional improvement measures.
   In Chapter 2, the theories on local community council as well as its related issues were reviewed.
   A Pilot project was performed nationwide from 2013 - 2022 to promote the transition from RCs (Residents' Committees, old organization) to RACs (Residents’ Autonomous Councils, new organization). Initially, the Model of “Cooperation with the Administrative agencies” (MC) in which the two bodies coexist and cooperate was selected and operated. Despite the continuous reform measures, some limitation remains in the range of operation. As alternatives, two different models, including the Model of “Integration with the two bodies” (MI) and the Model of “Council-Led Administration” (MCLA), were considered. However, those two alternative models are yet to be implemented because they pose some implementation difficulties, which have been only discussed as an option and need further in-depth studies to find practical applications. This study suggests the followings: 1) a major revision to improve the current cooperation model: 2) adopting either the integration model or the council-led administration model, or 3) developing a new local autonomous council model. This study also reviews the various characteristics of such models as well as the theoretical and empirical issues of the councils in Korea in terms of legal, institutional, organizational, operational, and financial aspects. The authors suggest that in order to build democracy from the grassroots, the activities of local autonomous entities should be performed to serve the public interest, and residents’ self-government capabilities should be enhanced.
   Chapter 3 primarily consists of two parts. First, a statistical analysis using the current status data of the 247 councils nationwide extracted from the application materials submitted for consideration to the Best Practices Contest in the 20th National Community Council Fair in 2021 in Korea. The councils were reviewed, focusing on their degree of publicness as well as self-government capabilities. It shows that through the pilot project, the overall level of residents’ self-government capabilities and publicness have been improved.
   It also suggests that self-government capabilities as well as publicness are the major determinants of running a successful local autonomous council model. The pilot project has obtained some positive outcomes in terms of organizational composition, program operation and activity level, and financing. Furthermore, it enables residential empowerment and encourages initiating new projects along with strengthening institutional measures, which shows that pursuing publicness is prioritized over improving residents’ self-governing capabilities. This can be viewed as one good strategic option, putting "strengthening publicness first and self-governing capabilities later”.
   In Chapter 4, the authors analyze some best practices of local community councils in various countries. Reviewed cases include the Japanese Autonomous Association, the Parish Council of the UK, and Gemeinde/Kommune in Germany and Switzerland, as well as some examples of community council cases in Korea such as RCs in Dandae-dong, Sinpyeong-myeon, Dangjin-si, Gokseong-gun, and RCAs in the Jeju Province, focusing on their legal, institutional, organizational, operational, and financial characteristics.
   Case analysis outcomes show that the current system in Korea has many areas for improvement in the aspects of self-governing capabilities and publicness. Based on such case analysis outcome, factors needed to enhance both self-governing capabilities as well as the degree of publicness are suggested to improve the current local council system. Implications of what should be considered when building a new model are also discussed.
   In Chapter 5, the demand analysis for each proposed council model was conducted. The key components of self-government capacity and publicness were used to identify the public demand for such models and their perceived priorities and, thus, to guide strategic directions for improving the local autonomy models.
   A survey and an in-depth interview of key interest parties, including local community council members, professionals, and experts were conducted on the importance, necessity, and desirable path of such models. The degree of publicness turns out to be a more important factor than the self-governing capacity, although no statistically significant difference was reported between the two. Most participants appear to agree with the idea of ‘strengthening publicity first and self-governing capacity later’.
   Regardless of publicness and self-governing capacity factors, the level of perceived importance for each factor’s components increased in the order of MC, MI, and MCLA.
   As for the importance of the role of the stakeholders, in the case of the private sector, the role of the local council was ranked first, followed by other community organizations and local residents. In the case of the public sector, the lower level of local government, Eup, Myun, Dong were ranked first, followed by City, County and Province, and the central government, suggesting that with a more advanced council model, they would have higher expectations on the both public and private roles. It also suggests that the residents should be empowered to participate in varying areas for the success of the proposed council models.
   Chapter 6 presents a plan to introduce a new model of the council and its development strategy. Five strategies were suggested to enhance publicity and self-governing capability and, thus, enable local community councils to well-represent the community to the local authority.
   In order to form and sustain a cooperative relationship between the administrative agencies and the local community, it is important to strengthen the capacity of the community council and those of the administrative agencies through education and learning, and laws and ordinances need to be enacted and implemented at various levels.
   The authors also provide suggestions for improving the laws and the related governing system needed to develop the future-oriented council model. In the future, continuous efforts are required to prepare legal grounds through a continuous revision of the Local Autonomy Act and enactment of the Bill of the Establishment and Operation of the RACs. Moreover, it is necessary to strengthen the authority and role of the administrative agencies and the community council in a way that strengthens the autonomous organization and personnel-related authority, fiscal autonomy, financial independence, and autonomous legislative authority.