지방자치단체의 국정참여를 통한 중앙과 지방간의 협력체계 강화를 위한 법제 정비방향

Abstract

Decentralization of the central government's power is one of the current government's agendas. To achieve this goal, it is necessary for local governments to participate into the central government's policymaking procedures. According to this participation, the cooperation between central and local governments is enhanced and gets strong foothold. In addition to the above theoretical aspects, it is also necessary to assure the conduits that provide local governments with the bottom-up way to submit their ideas to central government by statute. However, the statute, especially the Local Government Act provides only one such provision regardless of several provisions on the top-down intervention of central government. Thus, it is necessary to reconsider the current body of statutes including the Local Government Act and find solutions to enhance the active local governments' participation. In order to accomplish this purpose, I will examine some preliminary factors, such as the relationship between central and local governments, and the necessity for cooperation. Furthermore, I will suggest some better ways to improve the participation of local governments into central government's policymaking procedures. I also want to emphasize in this paper that the willingness of public servants to participate in the central government's policymaking procedures voluntarily is the key factor in improving the cooperation between central and local governments.