A Virtuous Circle of Public Administration Reform? Korean NPM Reforms and the Role of Social Capital

• 발행기관: 한국학술연구원
• 저자명: Eun Gee Yun Daniel Connolly
• 간행물 정보: 『Korea Observer』Vol 48, No 3, 513~547쪽, 전체 35쪽
• 주제분류: 사회과학 > 정치외교학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2017.09.30

영문 초록

This article surveys almost twenty years of previous attempts to implement new public management (NPM) in South Korea. It finds that NPM, an innovative approach to public administration that emphasizes marketization, decentralization, and changing incentive structures to deliver more efficient services, has had a mixed record in Korea because of resistance by the country’s strong developmental state. This has contributed to a looming governance crisis. How is reform possible? Is Korea doomed to go through yet another cycle of ineffectual presidential-led reforms? Can we find a more sustainable approach? This paper develops a novel theoretical argument that social capital, often overlooked in practice, is actually the prerequisite for successful NPM-style reforms. In turn, this suggests that NPM and New Governance, a rival model of public administration that emphasizes participatory networks, are more convergent than commonly believed. Far from being dead, NPM is as essential as ever. The paper concludes that emerging social, economic and political trends in South Korea are making it possible, if not necessary, to implement NPM from the bottom-up.

목차

Abstact

I. Introduction

II. Administrative Theories

III. NPM Implementation in Korea: Cycles of Frustration

IV. Social Capital and Pluralistic Societies: Understanding Key NPM Prerequisites

V. Conclusion

References

키워드

Public administration participatory governance Korea decentralization civil society social capital