The Korea Local Administration Review

This study examines factors affecting Korean local governments to join international sister･friend city relationships, which have greatly increased after the 1995 decentralization. Not only prefectural but municipal governments have contributed to this dramatic globalization, despite their limited governing capacity. Why do Korean local governments, with varying abilities and needs, choose to make sister･friend cities overseas? This article argues that peer pressures make local governments more competitive to have partnership relations with foreign cities than otherwise. Event history analysis reveals that Korean local governments are influenced by other local governments’ behavior in addition to considering substantive conditions; and their range of emulation lies in the whole country, not necessarily limited to a specific type or district of the local government. Ultimately, this study will unveil behavioral changes of the Korean local governments, which has taken a dramatic turn under the post-1995 local governance regime.

□ Keywords: international partnership, sister･friend city, globalization, decentralization, local governments, policy diffusion