The Korea Local Administration Review

This study aims to classify ‘digital platform government’ in theoretical aspects, to analyze the current status of platform government operation at the regional level, and to find out the significant factors to accept a variety of digital platform in local governments. Previous studies have attempted to utilize the concept of platform in business or engineering fields, however, it is limited discussed in the field of public administration. Thus, this study explains the conception and characteristics of platform government, varies types of public platform by using two main functions of platform(sharing vast data and promoting participation and cooperation of private actors and citizens) and service direction between the government and citizens. Based on the “Survey of the Digital Platforms by Local Governments” conducted by KRILA in 2022, this study anlayzes the influence of vertical coercive mechanisms, horizontal learning/competitive/mimetic mechanisms, and internal capacity on the typology of platform government at local level. The results are follows: firstly, local governmnets have an effort to design and operate various digital platform when they focus on expert’s advice and other government’s remarkable cases of digital platform; secondly, local governments with mid-to or long-term policy strategies consider to design a variety of platforms. This evidence suggests that there is another explanatory mechanism of the development of digital platform government at local level, while previous studies have argued the coercive power of the central government for policy diffusion in Korea. To be specific, it needs to support to strengthen policy capacity of local government and attempts to create the area for local governments to benchmark other cases of digital innovation in order to meets various needs in local society and to design developed platform at local level.