The Korea Local Administration Review

This Study investigates the current influence and activity of interest groups inlocal policy process on the basis of the assumption that political democratizationsince late 1980s and development of local autonomy could have brought somechange in the power structure in the local community. An empirical researchwas conducted to 597 local civil servants of Seoul Metropolitan Government andits municipalities. The study examines whether the influence of interest groupsin the local policy process has increased, what stage of policy process theactivities of interest groups mainly occur in, what type of activities is mostused, how effective each type of activity is, whom the activities aim to, and ingeneral how the local government responds to the activities of interest groups.The findings suggest that the influence of interest groups has increased but isstill relatively weak compared with other policy actors, that the interest groupsstill maintain the activity patterns of the past, and that the cooperation betweeninterest groups and the local government is not sufficient. There is no bigdifference in these findings between Seoul Metropolitan Government. and itsMunicipalities
□ Keywords: interest group, local policy process, Seoul metro government, Seoulmunicipalities