The Korea Local Administration Review

The purpose of this study is to identify the autonomous and accountable systems of local government organizational management. To this end, it was analyzed by comparing the relatively similar local autonomy system of Japan and Korea, the autonomous organizational authority system, and the associated accountability system. The analysis results are as follows. The legal basis of local governments in Korea and Japan and the local administrative hierarchy have high similarities, but there was a noticeable difference between the autonomous organizational authority system and the associated accountability system. In other words, in Korea, the central government partially controls the authority of local governments to set up organizations and manage the total number of civil servants. In comparison, Japan gives autonomous authority to local governments in principle. In addition, in the case of administrative responsibility, local governments’ organizational diagnosis is conducted by the central government in Korea, while in Japan, officials’ quota and wage-related information is disclosed to local residents. In the case of financial accountability, there are both systems of pre-prevention and post-management in Korea, while in Japan, ordinances on fiscal adjustment funds and sound finances corresponding to the pre-prevention system are the main ones.
The results of this analysis suggest that: First, institutional support is needed to enable autonomous organizational management of local governments in a situation where decentralization is strengthened. Secondly, local authorities need to secure mechanisms to ensure that local people are accountable to organisation management. Third, it is necessary to supplement the financial responsibility-related systems so that the autonomy of the organizational management system can lead to substantial accountability enhancement.