The Korea Local Administration Review

In Korea, it has been argued that single-tier local government can improve efficiency in public sector and contribute to regional equity and so forth. But this expectation has never been clearly verified.
However, Jeju-Special Self-Governing Province became the sole single-tier autonomous local government in Korea on July 1, 2006. So, it is very important to compare the outcomes before and after Jeju-Special Self-Governing Provinc’s birth.
This study aims at investigating the degree of satisfaction (hereinafter “the degree”) of public officials working in Jeju-Special Self-Governing Province by questionnaire survey and drawing the factors affecting the degree under the single-tier local government system. The factor analysis is used to find out those factors concerned with the degree of public officials in Jeju-Special Self-Governing Province.
The results can be summarized as followings. First, most local government officials are not contented with the single-tier local government system's outcomes. Second, it’s verified that the efficiency based on the cost of public services, and the equity among smaller administrative units are playing the key roles to grade the satisfaction of public officials. Third, most public officials working in Jeju-Special Self-Governing Province desire to change the present single-tier local government system into multi-tier system.