The Korea Local Administration Review

This study is a case study on its political meaning and Korean applicabilityby scrutinizing a town meeting which is a form of a citizen's direct participatorydemocracy. This study is trying to analyze the present situation and process ofa town meeting by discovering the cases of a town meeting which is currentlyimplemented in Korea, and whether it has effectiveness in citizens’ participationand policy-making process and the base as autonomous power. This studytargeted a vegetable village at Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi-do as its case study.As a result of analysis, the Pyongtaek-si vegetable village was found tomaintain the system durability of a town meeting and also to have a highprobability of setting the town meeting as a stable mechanism. However, thereexists a shortcoming as well despite its democratic applicability. Therefore, it’snecessary to inquire into the application of a town meeting as a level ofperformance properties other than formal institutionalization in order toovercome it. In addition, there is a great need for social capital, and feedbackprocess after policy-making for boosting the trust and cooperation betweenmembers, and expansion of members’ spontaneous participation.