Basic Report

COVID-19 has rapidly transformed our society into contact-free society. This change, at a time, provides a chance to develop public participation system in local government level by using various online participation platforms. It also allows that residents do a variety of actions that never been before in online platforms. In hence, this study attempts to diagnose current operation condition of the public participation platform in local government level and to seek improving plans using various analytical methodologies. For doing so, this study conducts previous literature review, institution and perception analysis, and domestic and foreign case study. Finally, this study suggests some improvement plans to public participation platform.
   First, in literature review, this study reviews a variety of materials with regarding to e-government, e-democracy, and platform government, classifies types and criteria of public participation platform, and integrates literature reviews with classification.
   Second, analyses of institutions and perceptions includes an empirical study. In part of institution analysis, it draws some problems to institutions with regarding to current operating system of public participation platform. Next, this study explores improving measurements to perception and preference by using questionnaire survey to local residents.
   Third, domestic and foreign case study includes analyses of 205 platforms in metropolitan government level with respect to residents, operating subjects, structure, evaluation, and utilization. In addition, this study conducts four domestic and foreign case study to public participation platform using same analysis criteria. The result of case study shows followings. It reveals that there is no distinct rule and guideline with respect to structures and operations to public participation platform. Next, it shows that public participation platform is to operate only focusing on suppliers and operators without reflecting demanders’ opinions and lack practical debate, deliberation and willing to utilization in local council. It also finds that there is a huge deviation in terms of operation and utilization between each local government, without connection with each platform. Finally, this study finds following results; residents have few participatory experiences to public participation platform despite a little perception to participation platform, public participation platform in local government has low awareness in comparison to things of central government, and an untact participation method such as using Social Networking Service has been little utilized.
   Based on the upper analytical results, this study suggests 13 improvement plans to public participation platform in terms of legal system, institutional system, and public perception perspectives.
   First, in terms of legal system perspectives, government should ① integrate dual applicable Act with a single one, ② provide a public participation platform with specific grounds and provisions on support, ③ make a rule to utilization of public participation platform in local Council, ④ expand human resource and organization for operating to public participation platform.
   Second, in terms of institution perspectives, it needs to ⑤ expand residents’ participation opportunities to platforms, ⑥ build a practical participation plans to platforms such as using SNS, ⑦ improve a quality of local public participation platform and reduce deviation between each local platform, ⑧ seek integrating and connecting plans to each local platform, ⑨ make a guideline to suggestion methods to local platforms.
   Third, in terms of public perception perspectives, it needs to ⑩ strengthen public relations to local public participation platform, ⑪ provide residents with learning opportunities to utilizing information system, ⑫ improve perceptions of local officials and change working process of local officials to local public participation platform, and ⑬ change a perception of local Council to a necessity of local public participation platform.
   This study has some academic and practical implications. First, this study has an academic implication in terms of defining a concept of local public participation platform based upon theoretical background and previous literature review. Second, this study has a practical implication in terms of encouraging to utilization of public participation platform in local government level. This study also has following methodological implications as well, such as conducting perception analysis to public participation platform that never been before, seeking improvement plans and utilization possibility to public participation platform using domestic and foreign case study, and drawing problems of public participation platform in metropolitan government level using operating condition analysis of each platform.
   However, this study also has some drawbacks with regarding to not only dealing with all around perspectives to public participation platform in all local government level but also only focusing on present condition and perception of some platforms in metropolitan government level. Therefore, some drawbacks should improve thorough future study, by conducting comparison analysis between users and nonusers to public participation platform, seeking improvement plans with reflecting local characteristics to public participation platform, and developing general operating guidelines to public participation platform.