Abstract

 

The year of 2015 is the 20th anniversary of popularly elected local government in Korea. It is worthwhile looking back the 20 year’s experiences and efforts of Seoul Metropolitan Government in local decentralization. It is also a good time to explore the future directions of local autonomy and mutual cooperative regional development of Seoul.

By the end of 2014, the central government announced “the comprehensive plan for the progress of local autonomy” which is the first official document of government. Seoul has also announced a strong willingness to promote local autonomy and mutual cooperative regional development for the balanced national development.

With these background, the Seoul Institute held over all the year round seminars series with 10 major themes on local decentralization and mutual cooperative regional development. This study contains the contents of the seminar series, including the summary of academic papers, materials of the presentations and the experts opinions in various fields expressed in the discussion.

The main subjects are as follows: the strategy of promoting local autonomy and decentralization, the strategy for expanding local fiscal capacity, activation strategies of the local council, promoting strategy for mutual cooperative regional cooperation, improvement of local grant program for the local government, the constitutional reform for the more decentralized government system, diverse configurations of the relationships between local government agencies and local assembly, relieving financial burdens of social welfare in local government, public-private cooperations for mutual cooperative regional development, prospects and responses for the future national and local finance.

 

Contents

01 Introduction

1_Background and Purpose of the Study

2_Main Contents and Research Methods

 

02 The Strategy of Promoting Local Autonomy and Decentralization

 

03 The Strategy for Expanding Local Fiscal Capacity

 

04 Activation Strategies of the Local Council

 

05 Promoting Strategy for Mutual Cooperative Regional Development

 

06 Improvement of Local Grant Program for the Local Government

 

07 Constitutional Reform for the More Decentralized Government Systems

 

08 Diverse Configurations of the Relationships Between Local Government Agencies and Local Assembly

 

09 Relieving Financial Burdens of Social Welfare in Local Government

 

10 Public-private Cooperations for Mutual Cooperative Regional Development

 

11 Prospect and Responses for the Future National and Local Finance