The Korea Local Administration Review

As Korean local governments gain more and more of their political and administrative autonomy, the issue of securing local accountability becomes an important research agenda. This study introduces and dissects what is known as the Best-Value (BV) System, a performance management system for local governments instituted by the Labor government of the United Kingdom in 1997. BV has been widely recognized to be very effective and thus an object of benchmark by many OECD countries. Based upon an analysis of various aspects of BV, an attempt is made in this paper to draw what can be learned from BV in restructuring the performance evaluation system(s) of local governments in Korea.