The Korea Local Administration Review

The goal of this paper is to analyze perspective of local social capital in Korea, after adopting of local autonomy system. Social capital is defined as networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefits. And local autonomy system is a product and result of democratization. So it can play a role of leverage in developing to local democracy. This paper explores the connection between local autonomy system and social capital by analysing of Daegu, Gwangju, and Daejeon metropolitan city.
This study showed that it contained various results of local autonomy and social capital. First of all, local autonomy system is possible to obtain excellent results in trust, reciprocal norms, public management, horizontal cooperation network mechanism, low transaction cost, and enlargement of civil participation. Second, social capital can be specified to connect the performance and development of local autonomy. Third, social capital is formed various complex types in Daegu, Gwangju, and Daejeon metropolitan city, so called ‘particularized social capital’.