한국지방행정연구원

Over three decades since the reinstatement of local autonomy in South Korea, local governments have achieved objectively measurable outcomes and demonstrable progress across various domains, including welfare expansion, infrastructure development, and administrative service enhancement. Despite these achievements, resident satisfaction and experiential perceptions frequently lag behind expectations. This study aims to analyze the structural disconnect between objective performance and subjective resident perception, identify its root causes, and propose substantive solutions.
Employing a multi-method methodology including literature review, statistical analysis, surveys, and in-depth interviews, the research comparatively analyzed objective performance indicators alongside resident satisfaction across local governments. Empirically, it confirmed the existence of a significant “discrepancy zone” where high objective performance coexists with low resident satisfaction. This gap is not merely a failure of communication but stems fundamentally from a “difference in evaluative frames of reference”. Local governments assess success using input and process-focused metrics, whereas residents evaluate autonomy based on outcomes, impacts, and their own subjective experience. This structural difference creates a communication barrier, as if they are conversing in different languages. Furthermore, the gap is compounded by the mismatch between formal decentralization and substantive autonomy, the lack of two-way communication that has long been overshadowed by one-sided publicity, and the chasm between ceremonial and genuine participation.
The study proposes four strategic directions to bridge this gap. First, a recalibration of perspective is needed: moving the evaluation paradigm away from input and process metrics toward outcome, impact, and the inclusion of residents' subjective experiential assessments—an epistemological shift acknowledging that reality is perceived differently based on the observer's frame. Second, evaluation system innovation is essential: adopting Results-Based Management (RBM), developing resident-experience-based indicators, and establishing an evaluation framework that directly incorporates the perspectives of multi-stakeholders, including residents. Third, substantive decentralization must be realized: requiring the genuine transfer of functions, fiscal power, and personnel authority, the expansion of autonomous legislative rights, and the institutionalization of horizontal intergovernmental governance. Fourth, authentic resident participation is indispensable: requiring a transition from ceremonial procedures to substantive, comprehensive involvement in the entire policy planning, execution, and evaluation cycle.
Based on these fundamental directions, the study proposes concrete strategic responses. Institutional innovation requires the meaningful enhancement of information disclosure, accountability, and participatory mechanisms, so that residents to can monitor local government activities in real time. Evaluation system innovation centers on a critical transition from output indicators to outcome and impact indicators (e.g., measuring the degree of improvement in resident welfare rather than the number of facilities built), which requires the integration of objective and subjective metrics supported by appropriate ICT infrastructure. Communication innovation demands a transformation across language, channels, and directionality (shifting to genuine, transparent two-way dialogue). Administrative level-specific responses call for a multi-layered governance model n which the roles for the central government, metropolitan are clearly distinguished and mutually aligned. The central government should build the institutional foundations through legal reform, functional transfers, fiscal decentralization, and evaluation system redesign, while metropolitan governments serve as coordinators and facilitators—crafting regional strategies, supporting collaboration among basic municipalities, and establishing shared platforms and infrastructure. Basic local governments, as frontline actors, should engage directly with residents, implement participatory policies, and ensure that policy outcomes translate into tangible improvements that residents can perceive.
This study ultimately demonstrates that the performance-perception gap is not a simple technical issue but a fundamental challenge to the very essence of local autonomy and the quality of democracy. The true success of local governance is achieved not by the enhancement of objective metrics alone, but when residents genuinely experience their region improving, trust that their voices are truly reflected in policies, and are convinced that local autonomy is meaningfully transforming their lives. The findings and strategic recommendations of this research offer practical guidelines for all stakeholders, aiming to enable a new paradigm leap for Korean local autonomy.